jane randolph (agonium) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2020-08-21 12:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | #march 2018, jane, jane x shane, shane |
Who: Jane and Shane
When: Night, Saturday, March 31
Where: Dreamland
Status: Complete
For Shane, dreaming was usually just a lot of random chaos that didn't make a whole lot of sense and rarely stayed with him after he woke up. He was glad for it, really, because a guy like him could have been plagued with nightmares growing up. The fuzzy memories of nonsense were a far better thing to wake up to and easier to leave behind. He was never aware he was dreaming, things just happened like a busy and badly edited movie and he moved through it - oblivious - until it was over. The only exception to this was when Jane showed up in his dreams. It had been frequent when they were and then dwindled down to once or twice a year after they escaped AIR. These days it wasn't even that often though he didn't exactly keep count.
Tonight's dream was a disjointed mix of random things he'd seen or thought in the last few days, shifting around like a shitty montage until suddenly it slowed down and it was just him at the club and he was aware. The music wasn't loud, not like it should be, and the people dancing were more like silhouettes or a blurred recollection than anything real. He huffed in amusement, then started looking around for Jane because he knew she was there or about to arrive. Nothing else made his dreams this vivid and he knew he could probably will anything to happen. He didn't hesitate to put that theory to a test and a second later he had a drink in his hand, though it was kind of fuzzy what kind it was because he wasn't very good at this and her infrequent visits meant he didn't have a lot of practice.
Jane knew Shane would be expecting her. She had dipped into his dreams enough in the past that he likely knew how those dreams differed from his normal ones. When she found him, she got a good look at the club and then pushed her way through the dark bodies until she spotted him. She loved dreamwalking. She could change whatever she wanted and tonight she wore a cotton white nightgown, her feet bare. Thankfully the floor wasn't sticky and gross... not in this dream. Jane walked up behind Shane and set her hand on the small of his back before slipping around to face him. "What're you drinking?" She peered down into the glass.
Shane flashed her a smile when she finally appeared, her outfit hilarious considering where this dream was taking place but at the same time it really made her stand out from the crowd. If he didn't know her or know what was happening, he might have had a religious experience right then or started fretting about ghosts, but no, it was Jane and it had been too damn long since he talked to her. He ignored her question at first and pulled her into a one-armed hug which felt familiar enough but was probably still wrong somehow because this was just a dream. "I have no idea," he then answered then, glancing at his drink as he swiveled it. "It was supposed to be whiskey but it looks like gold. I'm really bad at this."
"I don't know if you can drink gold," Jane said with a growing smile. She placed her hands around his cup until the color shifted and grew darker. "There, enjoy your whiskey. I should visit your dreams more often so you can get a better handle on changing the details." Jane let his cup go, dropping her hands to her sides. The shining amusement in her eyes dulled a little, and her smile grew softer. "But this isn't a social visit, Shane. I know you're probably having a lot of fun right now, but I need you to come back to Point Pleasant. Maybe indefinitely. I don't quite know yet. We need your help."
Shane was sipping the whiskey, or the perfect dream imitation of whiskey, when she dropped the news and he lowered his glass, the satisfaction from the taste of it draining from him. "Jane," he drawled, tilting his head back with a wry smile. "You gotta ease in with stuff like that, you know? Give me a minute to enjoy this dream and seeing you again. It's been what, two years?" She looked dead serious so he sighed, swirled the whiskey in his glass again. "What on earth do you need my help with? Are you in Point Pleasant now? And who's we?" The last he spoke to her she'd been in California painting up a storm, she'd shown him some of the paintings too though he had no way of knowing if she made them up in the dream or if they were really reflections of her real work. He'd often thought about visiting her, see for himself, but he was generally crap at plans.
Jane shot him a Look, because when had she ever been the type of person to ease people into bad news. Or good news. Or any news? "I have to get to the point," she said. "What if you wake up before I can tell you why I'm here? Then I have to wait for you to fall back asleep and that's so boring." Pushing her hair behind her ears, Jane glanced around the club, watching the dark silhouettes of bodies moving to music. "I've been in Point Pleasant since last September. There's been so much shit going on, Shane. But the facility is back, being run by Dr. Wilkes's son. Remember Neil? He's here. And Toby too. And there are others like us and they can do some pretty impressive shit. But there are a few of us that want to burn that place to the ground... permanently, this time. So we need you. When can you come?"
Shane hadn't entirely dropped his grin until she mentioned AIR. It was back and he needed a few seconds to let that sink in. "How the fuck is it back?" he asked, even if she'd already said it was Wilkes's son and he knew that but. How the fuck was it back. He remembered the night they burned it down the first time. He'd needed to know as much of the layout as he could and Jane had helped with some of it. It was hard to control fire once it got going and doing it blind was even more of a challenge. He certainly couldn't make it stop even if he could start and redirect it. "Have more kids gone missing?" he asked, a proper question he actually wanted an answer to.
"Probably," Jane said. Then she sighed and reached for his drink to take a sip for herself. "But people go missing in Point Pleasant all the time, so I don't know how much of it is AIR and how much of it is... other things. Like, a dozen people disappeared in January and Neil was involved. I mean, it wasn't his fault, but... shit, Shane, it's a long story. When you get here I can fill you in on everything. It feels like AIR isn't focused solely on kidnapping kids anymore. I think they're doing more, using the town as like... I don't know, some kind of experiment. I don't have any real proof of that beyond what's been happening since I came back. There's a man here, his name is Mal Nichols. He was taken as a kid and sold. Now he's back and he wants to take AIR down as much as I do. We need all the help we can get and that means you. Please come home."
Maybe the fact AIR had sold a kid should have surprised Shane but it didn't, it made sense and he was pretty sure they'd been grooming him for the same damn thing. "Fuck," he muttered and shook his head. It wasn't home, it had never been home. He'd lived there for all of two months, just started school and then bam, kidnapped. After that he'd left and never looked back - until now. He couldn't deny his connection with Jane though and he sure as hell couldn't deny the old hatred bubbling up in him at hearing AIR was back. Experimenting on a whole town? "I need a couple weeks at least," he sighed and thinking about responsible shit was hard enough when he was awake. "Where do I find you when I get back?"
Jane's relief was palpable and it probably showed on her face as she smiled. "Castle View. Just text me when you get to town. If you need to stay with me for a while, you can. Otherwise we can find you a place. I have so much to tell you." Way too much, in fact. But she could dump all the bullshit on him when he arrived. "A couple weeks. I'll tell Mal you're coming. Promise me you won't ditch me. If you do, I'll give you nightmares for the rest of your life. Or mine. Whichever ends first." She said it lightly, but she meant every damn word. They hadn't seen each other in a while now, but she always had Shane's back and she expected him to have hers. Especially now.
"No you won't," Shane murmured, his lazy smile back in place as he wrapped his arm around her again and knocked his hip against her. "You love me too much. Don't worry though, I'll come to Point Pleasant. I just got obligations and shit here that... Oh man, I sound old. I got a club, I need to put some affairs in order." He thought of Reza and maybe this was a good thing, a chance to break whatever spell that guy had on him but it still gave him a weird little pang to think about that particular affair ending. "I won't be crashing on your couch, there's gotta be some places for rent there, right?" He felt like checking his phone but caught himself just in time since his dream phone wouldn't be connected to the real life internet.
She did love him but she would haunt his dreams forever if he let her down. But knowing Shane, he would show. Hopefully she wasn't luring him back to his death. "There are plenty of places to rent and you know that shit is pretty cheap in this town." Jane grinned. "Look at us, meeting in a dream and we're talking about real estate. How boring. Get your shit taken care of and come see me. When we burn AIR to the ground again, you'll be able to go back to your club and everything that comes with it. Two weeks! If I don't see you by then I'm going to come there myself and drag you back, okay?"
"Did you get hold of all the others?" Shane asked and he couldn't remember all their names but he vaguely remembered their faces, scared kids outside of a burning institution. Had he even known all their names at the time? He didn't think so. Neil's name rang a bell, he remembered the two girls who were closer to his age but Jane was really the only one he'd known back then because she could visit him whenever he was sleeping. "Are we all teaming up like the Avengers or what? Do I need a costume?" He nudged her again and she was right, talking real estate was boring, there were a lot more fun things they could do in a game.
Jane shook her head. "I wanted to talk to you before I went to Neil. Maybe if he knew you were going to be there it would be less... scary. Or he'll be more scared. Who knows. Oh! Yeah, he can do this amazing lightning shit with hands." She held hers up to mimic his ability. "It's hardcore. And I'm going to track down Toby after I talk to Neil. I think he's a nurse now. I'll have to tell you about this guy, Vex when you get to town. It's too much for a dream. But there are more of us. Some who weren't there for the fire." She looked him over thoughtfully. "I mean, you'd look hot in a costume, so if you want to bring one, you can. I'm not sure any of the others will be dressing up though. I could probably find a cape."
That was a lot of news to take in, little Neil playing Thor, new people joining in. "Hope we won't need a nurse," Shane said with a wry smile and he really wasn't sure why Neil would be less scared with him there, he didn't know the guy but maybe she was talking safety in numbers. "And what was that thing from that cartoon... No capes!" He imitated the little cartoon lady as best as he could and laughed, even if it wasn't really a laughing matter. "I'll wear something tight and shiny," he said rather than think too deeply about why capes were a bad idea, giving Jane a little wink. "You'd look awesome in a catsuit. Probably not practical but it'd be more kickass than your nightie."
The movie reference sounded vaguely familiar, but Jane didn't watch much television so she couldn't quite place it. It still amused her. She probably should have begged Shane to come back to Point Pleasant earlier, just for the company. But he had a life and a business and everything, so at least now she had a valid excuse to lure him back. Glancing down at her nightgown, Jane placed her hands on her hips and flashed him a haughty smile. "My nightie is soft and comfortable, thank you very much. And I wanted to stand out in this." She nodded to their surroundings. "But you're right, I would look fucking fantastic in a catsuit. I'll have to do some online shopping." Jane arched a brow. "So you're coming. Promise?"
"I'm coming," Shane drawled lazily with a complete lack of enthusiasm. "Do we even have a plan?" They'd needed a plan all those years ago and while it had been somewhat haphazardous they'd at least tried and done well enough that none of the kids in the building had perished in the fire. The fact they were all outside of the building now and free to meet was both a con and a pro because it meant they had nobody on the inside to show them the layout. What they really needed was someone who could ghost walk through everything and give them a good picture of what they were dealing with exactly but even then, AIR might still have someone like Shane's worst nightmare in there, the man that Shane had only ever known by the name he himself had given them - Mister Zero. He'd muted Shane's powers and it had felt like losing one of his senses. Shane had hated every second of it, like going deaf or blind in a way, no fire inside him, no control over the temperature around him. If a ghost walker ran into a guy like that... He was thinking too far ahead, it wasn't even like they had someone with that ability.
"We'll have a plan when we're all together and can talk properly," Jane said. "I only just met Mal. Neil is always reluctant to talk about AIR and I haven't spoken to Toby in a long time. So... when you get here, we'll get together and start discussing what we want to do. There are some people here with abilities that you've never met before. And witches. I don't know if we can get any of them on our side, but you never know. One girl can open up, like, doorways into other worlds. And I'm willing to bet there maybe be a few people here and there like Mal and Vex, people we didn't know, but were taken by AIR too. Right now I'm just speculating. It's all still coming together."
The more she told him, the more Shane remembered just what they were up against. There was no way he was staying in Chicago but damn it, this was like getting drafted only he couldn't tell anyone about it and it didn't come with any benefits. "I'm guessing they're not nice worlds," he sighed and finished his dream whiskey then let the glass vanish from his hand. "Do your magic, Jane. Show me what they look like, give me some faces for those names." He motioned around them at his dreamscape where the silhouettes that had been dancing had gone still and now just resembled a strange shadowy landscape.
Jane was betting they weren't nice worlds either, considering what the fog had looked like and what she saw in Neil's shared dream. But there was no need to describe it to Shane. Why give him more reasons to say no than he already had? At his request, Jane glanced around the club, choosing a few of the shadows to become the people Shane would eventually meet. They began to take shape, turning to look at Shane with stoic, somewhat blank expressions. "Mal... Vex..." She pointed them out, grinning and waving at them though she received no real response. Shane hadn't asked her to give them glowing personalities in his dream. "You know Neil, sort of, but that's him over there... that girl is Jules, she of the creepy world hands. Toby! That's our Avengers crew right now. We may have more. I don't know yet."
That was a lot creepier than Shane had expected and he looked between the almost mannequin-looking people, nodding slowly. "Well, aren't we a sexy team," he muttered. The girl was very young but the boys grew up cute and Mal was pretty hot - Vex was weird looking but not unattractive. "Are you bringing in the girls too?" he asked then, trying to remember their names but coming up short. He remembered their faces though and that they'd been closer to his age than the other kids. Maybe Jane hadn't been in touch with them but if not, it was definitely time now.
Shaking her head, Jane was hoping that Shane wouldn't ask about Nicole or Naomi. But he had, and Jane didn't really want to have to lie about it. "They both skipped town," she explained. That was only half a lie. "After they saw me. I guess I freaked them out. I'm shocked Neil didn't ditch out too. But we can do this without them." Of that much, she was certain. Maybe one or two people would die, but that was a sacrifice Jane was willing to make. Assuming she wasn't the one being sacrificed, of course.
Shane was pretty sure that if Jane wanted to drag the girls back to town she could easily do so by haunting their dreams but he didn't push the topic. Maybe something in her voice stopped him or maybe he just didn't want to know but he was willing to let it go. "Maybe Neil is secretly excited about all this," he murmured instead, cocking a brow at her. "Not everyone gets to go to war with a bunch of superheroes against a powerful organization." He wiggled his shoulders and bit his lip as if to demonstrate Neil's excitement. "You're excited, right? Itching to rain holy hell down on them?"
It was impossible to swallow back her laughter. "Neil being excited about anything would probably shock me to my very core and strike me dead. If only he knew that was the best way to get rid of me. But yes, obviously I'm excited. It's been a long time coming. And now we have help. And now is the best time as any to do it. This town has been unusually quiet for the past couple of months. I don't think we're in danger of getting blindsided or distracted by other creepy, horrible shit." Jane grinned and rested her hands on her hips. "So get your shit together, Shane, because you might be here for a while."
"Nah, we'll make quick work of cleaning this up," Shane murmured with more confidence than he really felt. He didn't want to still be in Point Pleasant come winter, Chicago was bad enough, but he could use the summer for this and try to get back out in one piece. "Like you said, we've got help this time." They had help, he had money, they weren't kids anymore - they had a lot going for them that they hadn't seventeen years ago. "So, where in Castle View are you staying? I might just show up on your doorstep in a couple of weeks. You could also paint your door bright red so it's easy to spot."
"Psh, I'll paint a giant black snake on the door, then you'll know where I am," Jane said. Neil would probably love that. Maybe she would paint it on his door. Who needed a rent deposit back anyway? "But, just in case I don't get to it, I'm in 1026." She paused and wrinkled her nose, looking up and then around. "I think you're about to wake up. Things are getting fuzzy around the edges. Just remember this was real, and I was really here. I'm going to text you my address just in case you forget it. It'll be waiting for you on your phone before you take your morning piss."
Shane hated this part because it reminded him of all the times he'd woken up back at the institute. It was always Jane who noticed and he'd always wished she could keep him asleep somehow. Dreams had been so much nicer than reality and he had to remind himself that this was no longer the case. "I'll take my phone off airplane mode as soon as I wake up," he promised her with some amusement that quickly faded when he noticed his dream was doing the same. "Hey, it was good to see you, Jane. Even if you-" had to bring bad news.
He was mumbling those words to himself suddenly and they felt muffled. It took him a moment to realize that was because he had shoved his face against his pillow in his sleep and frustration rushed through him. Why couldn't he have more control over how he slept? It wasn't fair. He did remember though and he did know it hadn't been just a dream so he sat up groggily and picked up his phone. There was a reason he usually kept it on some sort of do not disturb setting or airplane mode and looking at his messages now was just an annoying reminder. She'd been right though, the message came through before he got out of bed and he made a point of putting it in his phonebook so he wouldn't have to wade through his messages to find it again. He even replied this time, sending back a simple smiley face.