Who: Jane & Shane Where: Castle View When: May Warning: Complete
To his great surprise, Shane found he actually liked Point Pleasant. He really wasn't a small town kinda guy but this small town had charm he hadn't expected and places that were far more interesting than a small town really deserved. He and Reza had spent the first couple of days sightseeing, shopping and lounging in an upscale bar which they'd both agreed they'd be regulars at for the duration of their stay. Reza seemed to like it here too though he hadn't managed to convince Shane to go anywhere near the ocean. That he could do on his own time which was pretty much now since Shane had gone off by himself to find Jane. He drove down to Castle View and strolled up to her door. It was only after he arrived he realized he probably should have texted her to ask first but where was the fun in that? When the door opened he grinned happily and took in the real life Jane for the first time since they were kids. She didn't look much different from her dream-self which was a little interesting to him but it also meant she wasn't insecure about herself and he liked that in people. "I thought you'd be shorter," he said in a way of greeting before spreading his arms. "I'm here!"
Jane knew Shane was coming, but she hadn't expected to see him on her doorstep, unannounced. She didn't mind it, of course. Occasionally Jane liked surprises. And she was just glad that he actually showed. Grinning at the sight of him, Jane stepped forward to hug him, not really caring if he wanted it or not. "You look just like you do in your dreams. Come inside," she said, pulling back to return into her apartment. "When did you get here?" He didn't have any bags or anything, so she was assuming he had a place to stay already. That was good. Hopefully no place too expensive, since Jane was guessing he would be stuck here for a while.
"Very recently," Shane said as he stepped in after her and took a look around. It was beyond surreal to see her while awake, to actually touch her after all these years and find she wasn't some ghost of Christmas past who only lived in his dreams. "I got a house up in Overlook," he said with an easy grin. "It's fucking huge. I love it." He wasn't sure what he'd expected Jane's apartment to be like if he'd had any expectations at all, but it looked about right and his gaze was caught immediately by the easel. "You're painting," he murmured with some awe as he made a beeline for it to look.
"Overlook?" Jane stared at him, slack jawed for a moment. "You know, nobody but pretentious assholes live up there. So you're a pretentious asshole now. What the hell do you need a place of that size for?" She blew a soft raspberry through her lips before turning to her easel. It was as dark and macabre as all of her other paintings. A naked woman in the water, her back contorted, the knobs of her spine jutting out from her pale skin. Stormy skies and blue water. She would give it to Neil but she knew it would just end up hidden like the other. "My entire second room is full of them," she explained with a shrug. "I think maybe I'll try to sell some this summer. This town is always having weekend markets."
Shane just laughed at her assessment of Overlook and focused on the painting instead, arching a brow at the thought of buying a painting. He found he wanted to, even if he was not at all the type to own many things. He could hang it in the club or something since he kept moving houses. "Got anything that'd look cool in a night club?" he asked and while he didn't love the water himself, he had to admit it made for a good painting. "It'd probably have to be bigger than this one." He wouldn't want to hang it anywhere where guests could touch it so it'd have to be high up and more visible.
Jane arched a brow. "I'm not sure. You can always go through my paintings and see if there's anything that would look good in your night club. The place was a bit dark in your dream so I didn't get a good look at the aesthetic. But if I don't have anything you like, I can always paint you something new. I'm not lacking in inspiration, after all. People in this town have a lot of nightmares." She headed for the small kitchen to wash her hands of the paint that had speckled her skin. "Seriously though, why Overlook? Those houses can fit like, 10 people. Aren't you going to get lonely up there by yourself?"
Shane had never commissioned a painting and it sounded like such a fancy thing to do, it kind of delighted him so naturally he would have to do that now. He was definitely going to be looking at the rest of her paintings to come up with a theme when she brought up Overlook again and he groaned softly. "I need a lot of space," he said with a shrug. "Plus I have a friend staying with me for a couple of weeks." He and Reza hadn't talked about how long he would stay and it could be anywhere from two days to a year for all Shane knew but this sounded nice and casual. "He's not AIR so he won't be attending our little resistance meetings." He shot Jane a grin over his shoulder before going back to looking at her painting.
A lot of space. Jane thought the houses in Overlook were beyond a lot of space, but maybe she was just jealous. At least until Shane mentioned having a friend stay with him. Her eyebrows shot up as she scrubbed the paint from her hands. "A friend." A friend who wasn't AIR. "Does this friend know about AIR?" She wasn't sure how she felt about some outsider hanging around when they all had shit to do - bad shit, probably - but she was guessing this "friend" was more than a friend, even if Shane's tone indicated otherwise.
"No," Shane said, drawing the word out in a little laugh. "And we're keeping it that way. He'll be busy doing touristy things when I'm not there so don't worry about it. He's not clingy." Which was possibly why Shane liked him so much. Sure, he'd been understandably frustrated when Shane first ghosted him but maybe that had set the tone for everything that came after. He knew Shane didn't want to get attached and Shane wasn't eager to admit he already was. "Do we even have a plan yet?" he asked, strolling over to the kitchen as well and peeking inside her fridge. "I'm guessing we're all meeting soon but then what?"
Jane snorted loudly as she turned off the taps and grabbed a dish towel to dry her hands. "Yeah, good luck with that, Shane." If this person was a significant other, even a casual one, she highly doubted Shane would be able to keep their shenanigans a secret. And what if AIR found him out? What if they went after this "friend"? That was one of the reasons why Jane was happy to be single. "No plan yet, but we're going to figure it out. I've got Neil on board, and Toby. Mal, he's a preacher in town... he's recruited a couple of people too. All AIR subjects. Now that you're here, we can get together and hash this out. The end game is destroying AIR. Again. Wilkes doesn't have any children. Just one nephew. So we get rid of them, who else is left?"
Shane gave her a doubtful look. He was naive in many regards but he'd seen enough of the seedy criminal underbelly of life to know it wasn't really that simple. "There's a whole lot of people in the shadows," he muttered. "People pulling strings or people just watching and biding their time. Otherwise we could easily assassinate those two and be done with it." What they really needed was someone on the inside, but with what Jane could do maybe they could get the information they needed. "Sounds like you need to bump into a few people and go dream a little dream to find out more. Think there's any way to get near Wilkes?"
"I know that." She shot him a look and then came back around the kitchen counter, her hands on her waist. "That's why you're here. Why we have Toby and Mal. That's why we need to get together and figure out a plan." Jane nodded at Shane's question and glanced at her painting again. "I've been snooping lately and have come across some pretty interesting information. I haven’t told Mal, or anyone yet… Wilkes’s nephew is living in Point Pleasant.” Jane grinned. “He lives in this apartment building too. He can’t be more than eighteen, nineteen tops. I figured we could use him to get to Wilkes. Befriend him somehow without him knowing who we are. There’s a teenage girl who lives here, she’s one of us. She was taken in by Diego, one of the escapees Mal found this year. We could use her.”
Shane didn't like the sound of that. He'd felt pretty grown-up and capable of caring for himself when he was sixteen but looking back he'd been just a kid and plenty of people had used him back then. "How about we try some other way before we put a teenage girl in danger," he suggested with a little smirk but of course he had no idea what that 'little girl' was capable of. Maybe she could burn someone to crisp like he had, but maybe she was helpless and they had no idea what Wilkes's nephew was really like. A shy nerd, an arrogant jock, a rampant rapist. He snagged a juice from Jane's fridge and bumped the door closed with his hip before leaning against the counter next to her. "If we need to 'seduce him' I'm sure you'd do a great job yourself."
Jane shook her head. Honestly, these men. "She wants to help, Shane. She's got an interesting ability to. If it means she gets to be friends with a boy, I doubt she's going to shrink away from it. We're going to give her the choice as to whether she wants to do this or not. You know how we were as teenagers, don't you? At least for me, I hated being treated like a kid. And this is going to be dangerous for all of us, regardless of what we plan to do." Jane flopped down on her couch and crossed her legs. "I'm not seducing anyone, certainly not a teenage boy. Besides, maybe you're more his type than I am."
"If I'm more his type than you are then I'll do my part," Shane said as he walked over to join her on the couch, flopping down next to her and sprawling comfortably. "And I remember feeling invincible, until I didn't and now it's so fucking obvious we were idiots back then." He was still an idiot sometimes, he couldn't deny that but he was older and not quite so easily taken advantage of. "My only worry is... Where is she from? If she's a teen she's not from this new AIR or our AIR, so how many are there? Do they share files between locations? Are all our names floating around out there?"
"Yeah, but we also didn't have adults to help us," Jane pointed out. "She does. Her gay dads are pretty protective of her, so I can't see either of them doing anything to put her in obvious danger. Befriending another kid her age will help us. We're not asking her to assassinate anyone." Jane brought her socked feet up to rest on her coffee table. "I think she said she came from somewhere in Michigan, but she wasn't really sure. They took her when she was eight and then escaped this year. She made it all the way to Maine, Shane. To this stupid place. Coincidence? And Diego, the other guy, he came from some facility in the west. They may be all over. I don't know if they share files, if they're all connected somehow. But... if we get some information from someone who knows, we should do it."
"Aww she has gay dads?" Shane said and pressed his hand against his chest with a sappy little smile which was at least half put on as a joke. It was pretty cool though. "I'll have a hard time not calling them daddy," he added with a little more of a smirk. It was easier to focus on that part of what she said than the part where there might be multiple facilities sharing information between them. The Internet as a whole had been a lot crappier in 2001 and maybe (maybe, maybe, maybe) the facility they burned down had been one of the first. He couldn't outright ignore that conversation though and he knew it, sighing softly and running his fingers through his hair. "So we need someone on the inside, I don't think a teenager will cut it."
"He's Wilkes's nephew," Jane reminded him with a pointed look. "He's also a teenage boy. If there's anyone that can be manipulated into sharing information, it's him. That doesn't mean we can't try to find someone else, but it's more likely he's going to open up to someone his age with boobs than one of us. And anyone else working for Wilkes right now is going to be suspicious of anyone buddying up to them all of a sudden, not to mention the fact that those people may have our names. What do you suggest?"
"How many trade secrets would you tell your teenage nephew?" Shane replied in same before sighing and letting his head drop back against the back of the couch. "I don't know, Jane. Maybe it's time to do a little dream walking, if they haven't blocked everyone from psychic interference." That was one advantage AIR had always had, the horrible blockers on their stuff, the Zeroes that made Shane feel like he was missing a limb. He had hated them almost more than he'd hated the scientists who outright tortured him as a child. "Too bad we don't have a shapeshifter," he added with a smirk though he wouldn't envy anyone who had to go into the building under false pretenses, it'd be risky.
"Well, when your nephew works for you, I would assume he knows something," Jane pointed out. "And he's living in Point Pleasant, unlike his uncle. You don't think he'd know what's up? I've seen the kid, so maybe I'll just take a walk and see what I can find out. But this idea that we need to play nice isn't going to help us. Wilkes goes the way of his daddy, then who's to say his nephew doesn't step up down the road and this starts all over again. It needs to end for good." She grinned at the idea of a shapeshifter. "Don't know any shapeshifters unless you count a werewolf and he's not reachable." To say the least.
All of what she said was heavy and Shane was frowning softly as she spoke until that last part. At that he grinned and shook his head, blinking slowly. "Of course you know a fucking werewolf." It surprised him, though it shouldn't. Nothing should surprise him anymore. "Okay, no playing nice, I don't give a shit about Wilkes's little nephew but if we're sending one of our own after him then we gotta make sure she's safe. Unless- you said she had an interesting gift?" He didn't want anyone to have to shut down an assault by burning someone alive or anything like it, but it'd help to know she could defend herself if it came to it.
"Of course we'll be safe, and we'll make sure anyone dealing with AIR is safe. I'm not a total monster, you know." Jane grinned. Hemming and hawing over all of this crap would get them nowhere. They probably wouldn't hesitate to hurt or kill Jane and the others, so she didn't feel the need to be polite and civilized. They were gathering to destroy AIR, not negotiate or work out some peace treaty. "Well, it's not burning people to a crisp, or telekinesis or anything like that. She can like..." Jane lifted her hands, her brows furrowed together thoughtfully. "Invoke the seven deadly sins. She can make you starved, or psychotically selfish, or enraged with jealousy... horny as fuck, I imagine." Her smile widened. "She told me it's how she survives. It's like food to her."
Shane thought they might be monsters in their own way so he just chuckled at her declaration that she wasn't, shrugging with some amusement. What she had to say about the girl though ,that got his attention and he groaned softly with jealousy. "That is cool as fuck," he muttered. "Though I guess it could bite her in the ass if she uses it wrong. Wonder how she can use it for defense. Maybe... sloth someone into apathy." Oh yes, that could work. Most of the others would probably just drive a person into a frenzy and that was not helpful to keep them from attacking her. "Remind me not to piss her off."
"She could probably use it for a lot of things," Jane said. "Which is why she'll be helpful... just as much as you and everyone else. But yeah, I'll remind you not to piss her off, not only because of what she can do, but because she's a teenage girl and teenage girls can be vindictive little bitches." Resting her head on the back of the sofa, Jane folding her hands over her stomach. "I'll let Mal know you've made it. He'll want to meet you. Also, when do I get to meet this friend you've got up there in Overlook?"
Shane snorted at that and shook his head. "In a town this size you'll run into him sooner or later," he said and he didn't exactly love it. People stared here, some even chatted and wanted to know his story. It was going to take getting used to. "Tell me more about Mal, I might go say hi myself, size him up." He knew what the man looked like, thanks to Jane's creepy display in his dream, but he couldn't exactly go door to door looking for him. He was curious about all of them but he didn't have much going for him except their names and what they looked like and the less he had to go around asking questions the better.
Jane arched a brow, smirking. "Oh, I see. This friend is more than a friend. Got it. You're going to have to introduce us eventually." And if he tried to avoid it, well, Jane would just have to make it more awkward and embarrassing for him. "Mal is a preacher. He's over at the... Word of the Redeemer? I forget the name of the church. He has a daughter. Soft spoken, but I don't think he's got a lot of patience for bullshit." Jane shot Shane a look. "He's a telepath but he's not intrusive. At least, I don't think he is. I think you'll like him."
Shane was groaning again because Jane was really laying into him with shitty information. That last bit made him laugh and he gave her a skeptical look. "I'll like him? That must mean he's not of the fire and brimstone for all sexual deviants variety." He didn't know if Mal would like him back, if anything, Shane felt full of delicious bullshit, his life was a steaming pile of nonsense, really and on that note he didn't know how to explain what Reza was because they weren't really friends but they weren't really dating. "Reza's a fuck buddy, it doesn't go deeper than that," he finally muttered because that's what he told himself was happening, leave all the complications for another time, hopefully by the time his strange attachment had faded like it would.
"Hey, he might be fire and brimstone, but that just means he has his own dirty kinks to work out," Jane said, laughing. "He's good looking though, so you can at least enjoy that, if nothing else." A lot of the men connected to AIR were good looking though Jane was pretty sure most of them were gay. Wasn't that always the way? "Reza. I get a name. Nice." Jane smirked. "And you don't drag a fuck buddy from Chicago to a dumb little town in Maine if he's just a fuck buddy, Shane. Don't try to pull that crap with me."
"You don't?" Shane asked, quirking a brow at her. "Why the fuck not? I don't think I'll be getting laid in this town so I brought entertainment with me." It sounded sensible to him, like bringing a book to a cabin with no wifi would and Reza was an exquisite fuck so there was that. "It's called self-care, Jane. You should try it." He nudged her playfully and gulped down the rest of his juice thinking he could use something a little stronger if they kept talking about fuckbuddies.
"You could absolutely get laid in this town," Jane argued, still amused. "You have no idea how long you'll be here. You brought him because you like his company, not just his dick." She nudged him back, more forcefully. "You can be honest with me. It's not like I'm going to skip around the room and tell Reza you loooove him. Give me a break. As for my own self-care, it's been like... almost a year since I had any help in that department. I'm putting the self in self care."
"Jesus," Shane wheezed at her admission. The longest he'd gone without sex was ... a month? He hadn't liked it much. "Okay, objectively speaking straight guys are awful so I guess I get it," he then sighed. "As for Reza... Sure, I'm in lust with the man and he's not staying here for that long." Not that he had any idea how long Reza wanted to stay, Shane was in no rush to send him packing and as reluctant as he was to admit it, he would miss him when he was gone. Stupid. "But fuck, Jane. Don't you miss it?" No, he couldn't get over the year thing. Maybe it was a woman thing, most of the gay guys he knew were complete hoes and women seemed to fare better doing without.
"We'll see. I want to meet him before he leaves. And not just around town." Jane eyed him before pushing up from the couch to wander into the kitchen to grab a drink. Something alcoholic, she didn't care what time it was. "And yes, I miss it. I mean, I miss good sex. But I've been focused on dreams and AIR and painting. Nobody here has really caught my eye. I've wandered through a few sex dreams though, so it's not like I'm not entertained." She grinned and pulled a beer from her fridge. "Want one?"
"You filthy pervert," Shane teased her with a shake of his head and then nodded to the beer. He could use some alcohol, even if beer wasn't a favorite, especially cheap beer which he suspected this was. He wasn't about to tell her she couldn't meet Reza, with any luck he could stall it until he'd left town and if not, well, he just hoped Jane wouldn't make it awkward for him. No talk of AIR for one, not that she was naive enough to bring that up with outsiders. "So you said the whole town was an experiment now or something, wanna tell me what that's all about?" There, it was a better topic and a more important one.
Jane carried another beer over to hand to Shane before she flopped back on the couch. "I don't know for sure what AIR is up to, but there aren't as many reports of kids going missing as there were back when they took us. I mean, people go missing all the time in Point Pleasant, but they're mostly older people. Considering all the weird shit that's happened since I've been back, I think it's more likely that AIR is fucking with everyone now. Maybe they have people like us helping them. People they've... groomed, I guess."
Shane knew what she meant by that and he grimaced at the thought of what might have become of him if Jane hadn't accidentally spotted him in the hallway and been curious enough to hunt him down in his dreams. They'd been doing a good job of breaking him, their tactics changing that last year, probably because he was getting old enough to work for them or be sold, like Mal. They'd certainly thought they were doing a good job at least, good enough that his sudden betrayal came as enough of a surprise. "I think they've always had someone," he muttered. "Like that zero guy, fuck I hated him more than the others." And that was saying something.
"Sure, but now they might have someones. Is that a word?" Jane grinned before sipping her beer. "The more there are of us, the better. If they know we're here... at least me and Neil, they've more or less left us alone, though I don't doubt they're watching us. That's why we should figure this out sooner than later, before we all start disappearing again." Jane figured that was what happened to the others who had gone missing shortly after she returned to Point Pleasant. AIR took them or they fled. "Talk to Mal. He's much more convincing than I am. Although I did get you to come here all the way from the city."
Shane had to wonder just how easy he was to find, if AIR was even looking. He'd legally changed his name and stayed clear of Point Pleasant for this long, but who could really know just how much reach AIR had around the country. "You're plenty convincing," he said with a smirk. "Don't sell yourself short. I'm here, aren't I?" Possibly for the rest of his life so that was all fun and depressing. "I'll reach out to the others in the next few days, probably better than going around introducing each other, meeting up in groups. If the current people at AIR don't know who I am then I'm not looking to alert them just yet."
"You're here because you know I can haunt your dreams for the rest of my life." Jane knew that wasn't solely it, but it was still fun to tease him about it. He would miss his life in Chicago, but this was their lot in life. Sacrifices had to be made. At least he had his not-entirely-a-fuck buddy-fuck buddy. "Toby is a nurse. He's probably got other patients, but he's a home care nurse for the guy who owned the funeral home... something Rayner. Guy is in a coma now, or something. Neil is working at the library. I already told you where Mal is. Gay dad and daughter live in Seaview but I don't know if they have jobs."
"God," Shane groaned. "It's so fucking weird to meet you in real life, I keep thinking you're going to do a magic trick and change the room." He sipped his beer and sat up straighter, looking around her apartment with an amused smile. as if coming to terms with the fact that it was in fact real. "Do you know where in Seaview those guys are? Not sure I wanna go knock on their door but you never know, could come in handy knowing their address. Neil and Mal sound easier, can just drop in at their jobs." He filed the Rayner name away for later too, just in case he didn't run into Toby as easily outside of his work.
Jane huffed out a breath. "I wish I could change reality. That would be so fucking fun. Alas. Although..." She trailed off and sipped her beer. "If I see your friend, I'll just find his dreams and introduce myself there. You can't stop me then." Jane stuck her tongue out playfully. "I don't know where the gay dads live in Seaview. Ask Mal. Maybe he's got their number, or address. I try not to go over there if I can help it, especially with it being so close to Cooperdale." Sighing, Jane wished she had some weed to smoke. Shane would probably be fun to get high with. "What's your boy doing now, by the way? Did you ditch him in that big house all alone?"
Shane groaned again, closing his eyes for a moment as he took a deep breath. When he opened them again he looked at Jane with an amused smile. "Jane. Sweetheart. Are you going to embarrass me with this guy?" To be fair, Reza might just think it was a really weird dream and not figure out what it really was but then again... Shane licked his lips as he considered it. "I want to say leave him alone because he's completely vanilla in our world but... I think there's something to him. Something else. Just can't put my finger on it. So if you go shaking your cute butt in his dream he might not be oblivious to it being more than a dream, you know?"
Jane couldn't help but laugh as she brought her beer up to her lips again. It was so fun to get under his skin. It was almost as fun as getting under Neil's skin, or Toby's. Men were so damn sensitive. As she took a sip, she quirked an eyebrow and glanced at him. Something different. That was always intriguing. "I don't shake my butt at anyone, thank you very much. But if he is something, I bet I could find out. Get into his dreams and pull it out of him. You'll probably tell me not to because you loooove him, but if he could be helpful to us... well." She shrugged. "Or maybe he's just super vanilla everywhere else but between the sheets. Don't you want to know?"
Shane groaned again, for longer this time because it was so tempting to say yes. "Fuck," he finally drawled, laughing. "Tell you what, give me a little longer to try and unravel the mystery and if I fail I'll call in the cavalry." He grinned at her. "You're the cavalry in this one, Jane." There was of course nothing stopping her from snooping around on her own but Shane didn't want to know just yet, he was enjoying what he had with Reza and for now it was not complicated which was perfect. "And it's lust, not love, though I suppose for you ladies it's all the same thing." He bit his lip as he tittered again, hoping by this he'd get under her skin for a change.
"Fine. But I'm giving you a deadline of a few weeks before I go shaking my ass in his dreams," she warned. She swung her arm out to hit him in his side. "Lust and love are the same thing, my cute little butt. You let me know when that hot sex becomes the slow passionate kind where you both just stare into each other's eyes the whole time." Jane wrinkled her nose. "We'll definitely have to get drunk when that happens." She wasn't against being in love... okay, she wasn't against other people being in love. It just seemed like too much work and she was exhausted just thinking about it.
Shane made a raspy little noise at that, wrinkling his nose and shaking his head. "I wouldn't know what the fuck to do with that," he all but whined at her. "I want to get drunk just thinking about it." He couldn't deny that Reza made him feel something though, something more than he was used to, like a fucking drug. "Or just high," he muttered on that thought. "Where do you get good drugs in this town? I didn't wanna bring any with me on the plane." He was sure he could score something but if she had recommendations that was better than getting hooked up by a stranger in a bar.
Jane grinned before drinking more of her beer. It was odd to her that Shane didn't see what was happening to him when it was plain as day. He could whine about not having any options for sex in Point Pleasant as an excuse, but he had flown another person here and was putting him up in a nice house in Overlook for fuck's sake. That went way beyond "friends with benefits" or whatever Shane wanted to call it. But she figured he would find that out on his own. "What kind of drugs are you looking for?" she asked. "I can get you some weed, but anything stronger than that? I have no fucking idea."
"You're so vanilla in real life," Shane sighed but it was light hearted and didn't carry much weight. He didn't need drugs to get by but he figured if everything went to shit, he'd like to get high at least one more time. "Weed is legal here, right? So you might as well be offering me another beer." That was okay, he'd figure something out. "So what do you do around here for fun? When you're awake, I mean. Any recommendations for a cool place to take my boy toy?"
Jane's lips parted in mock offense. "I'm vanilla because I don't like to fuck up my head with hard drugs? Sweetheart, my drug is someone else's dream. It's better than anything I'm about to snort up my nose. Or ass, depending on how you enjoy it." She stuck her tongue out at him. "But yeah, weed is legal. I've heard stories about the guys who run this dive bar in town, the Back Porch? They're supposedly shady people so maybe they can help you. I'm keeping my head nice and clear, thank you very much." She sipped her beer again before leaning forward to set it on the coffee table. "As for other means of fun, there's a strip club ten miles outside of town, but it's all tits so you probably wouldn't enjoy it. There's a karaoke bar, plenty of shops. An arcade, movie theater. They usually have stuff going on at the marina. The creepy lighthouse opens on Memorial Day, I think. Bangor isn't too far from here if you want to go somewhere with more to do."
Shane tittered through her exclamations and murmured a subdued, "Sorry, miss hardcore." He could make his own fun, it just kind of sucked to think about how he might never get high again if things went sour. Maybe he'd been high often enough for a life time but he'd steered himself straight after almost going too far and now only indulged on occasion. he had no idea if Reza even liked to get high but a stubborn part of him reminded him that it didn't matter, he could get high without him. Drugs were also a good way to keep people like Jane out of his head though he hadn't used them as such, it was just a side effect that might be good to keep in mind for later. "I'm definitely going to Bangor again soon, even if it's a small city compared to Chicago. It's gotta have some fun clubs. Do you ever go clubbing? Or just in dreams?"
"I go clubbing. I just haven't in... well, a long time. I've been here," she said with a frown. "I've been to the bars. There's a place called Dragonfly too. It's got something weird about it, but I can't place what it is. It's almost impossible not to feel good when you're there. That might be a place you would enjoy. It's a bit more highbrow than the Porch is. I'll take you there one night. You can bring your boyfriend." Jane figured maybe it was time to drive to Portland for a weekend or something. Blow off some steam. Try to get laid. She had been so wrapped up in AIR that she hadn't done much for herself other than dreamwalk and paint.
"You know, the best way to get to know people is to get piss drunk and go dancing with them," Shane told her. "We should drag the whole gang to Bangor and tear up the town." He laughed because from what he knew of them, quite a few would never be seen near a night club. "You'll come dancing with me sometime at least, right?" he murmured. "Sounds like you're way overdue for some fun." He'd just arrived in Point Pleasant and there was still a lot to see but he knew from experience he'd get antsy soon and a weekend away would be good medicine for that.
Jane burst into laughter. "Oh god. I'm going to try and imagine Neil dancing and having fun. I don't even think he knows how to relax his asshole, Shane. But yeah, you know I'll go with you. We might as well have as much fun as we can before the shit hits the fan." It was getting warmer outside, so at least they wouldn't be holed up inside and going stir crazy anymore. "So is your boy waiting on you? Want to go grab something to eat? Or drink... there are places with better liquor options than my shitty apartment."
Shane had some choice dirty jokes about how he could help Neil learn to do just that but he bit them back and smirked instead, probably in a way that showed exactly what he was thinking but that was okay. "My boy is... yeah, I've been out and about since early this morning and I have no idea where he is right now." He wanted to go out with Jane some evening, have dinner and a few drinks but he kind of wanted to meet the others first, that way they'd have more to talk about than just 'his boy' which was apparently proving to be a slightly sore subject for him - and yet not. So she was probably right and he was completely fucked. "Raincheck?" he murmured, reaching over to lightly clink his bottle of beer against hers.
"Raincheck," Jane agreed, tapping her bottle against his. "I'm glad you came. Even if this is all a disaster, at least we'll have some fun before it all explodes in our faces." And she would have something of an ally in Shane. Neil could be impossible sometimes and Mal seemed fairly serious. Jane would definitely need someone to help her keep her shit together and her temper in line.