Rostislav Zelenka (ghostsongs) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2021-01-26 11:30:00 |
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Entry tags: | #june 2018, greer, greer x rostislav, rostislav |
Who: Greer and Rost
When: late morning, Monday, June 4th
Where: Main St. Market
Status: complete
Rost happened to love it when Point Pleasant did a street market. They reminded him so much of a few different ‘homes’ he’d had, in bigger cities in the US and in smaller places in Europe. Point Pleasant was pretty good at it though, and he’d taken his guitar down to more than one market to play and get a few dollars in a hat. This time, he was delighted to be doing more than that. Instead he was luring customers toward the booth Greer had set up to do palm and tarot readings. It was their first time at a market, and Rost was thrilled to have the day off and participate. Especially considering what he’d encountered at the cemetery the day before.
He’d been hoping for better weather their first day, but the sky was threatening rain, and it was a little chilly. The sun would come out eventually, this wasn’t the only opportunity, but still, the humidity was bad for Rost’s guitar, and he was craving some sunshine. After he finished up a mournful ballad from his homeland, sitting out on the stool beside Greer’s little booth, Rost stood up to stretch and take a break. Dev had wandered off to get them some food, but either the lines were long or he’d gotten distracted by something, because he wasn’t back yet. Rost ducked under the tent roof they had behind the booth, glad to see that Greer was between customers, and moved in close to kiss her head. “How are you holding up?” he asked her.
Even with the questionable weather, Greer was mostly enjoying herself. She had missed being social in town and this gave her the perfect opportunity to talk and interact with people. After being returned home, Greer had dealt with a lot of adjustment. Having Dev and Rost by her side helped, but even then she had felt jittery about leaving the house. It was unusual for her, but she couldn't shake the feeling that if she ventured too far, she would just disappear again. Or something would come out of the trees to injure or infect her again.
Eventually she worked through a lot of those fears, and now she was doing what she loved and making money from it. There were some... new issues she was trying to sort through. One she hadn't yet told Dev or Rost, but Greer was trying to understand what was happening to her first. When Rost came into the tent, Greer immediately smiled, happy to see him. She had been enjoying his music as she reset her table, but it was much nicer to have him there with her. "I'm good," she promised, reaching for his hand to give it a squeeze. "Do you want to sit with me for a bit?"
Rost loved playing music for people, and he loved even more that it drew folks in to see Greer, but he was ready for a break. He’d been trying not to be too clingy with her since she’d returned, that desire shifting from not wanting to overwhelm her to not wanting to annoy her once her memories had come back. They’d all been loving and wonderful to each other, Dev and himself were both over the moon that Greer remembered them again, but something about it all still felt fragile. Maybe it would just take some time for everything to unclench. Rost set his guitar down and pulled one of the other chairs they had in the tent over closer to her, smiling softly as he sat down. “Always,” he murmured, settling in. He glanced over her cards and then out toward the open flap where customers came and went. “See anything interesting in the cards yet today?”
Greer waited until he was sitting before she reached for his hand again. She was doing much better now but sometimes she still needed to feel grounded in this reality. Touching Rost, or Dev, helped her do that. As long as they were there, and real, she felt right with the world. "Oh, nothing terribly spectacular. Hints of love and success. You know, the usual things that people want to hear." They tipped better when she gave them good news. That didn't always stop her from giving them disappointing or bad news, if she felt it was significant enough. Greer ran her thumb over his knuckles, enjoying the familiar feel of them. She studied Rost with a small smile playing at her lips. "You have something on your mind. Is everything okay?"
He was always happy to hold hands with Greer, and Rost gave her fingers a gentle squeeze as she spoke. He’d been trying not to baby her, aware that was also frustrating, but his instinct kept leaning toward treating her like glass. Rost just knew he would completely fall apart if he lost her again, in any form or fashion. Dev too. One of his brows lifted when she called him out, and he followed up with a faint chuckle. “You see all, madame Greer,” he murmured with a little half-smile. She was always perceptive, even without her cards. “All is well ... I think. At least in our small corner. But yesterday when I went to work ... the stone angels have moved again. All in the same position, all covering their eyes.” Rost had noticed immediately, of course, and it had given him a deep chill. There was something menacing in those smiles ...
Greer frowned. She recalled the way she had felt in the cemetery in the past, and she knew the angels had moved before. They had been unsettling, even though Greer usually felt at peace in cemeteries. "Did you feel unsafe?" she asked, tightening her grip on his hand. She had no idea if he loved his job enough to put himself in danger, but if there was something going on there, Greer didn't want Rost to be there alone, or at all. She had just gotten her men back and she didn't want to risk losing either one of them. But to Greer, the statues were beautiful... but certainly hiding something dark and foreboding.
The question made him smile slightly, his expression fond as he gazed at her. “I am always safe there but never safe, does that make sense?” he asked, squinting one eye a bit. Rost had a reverence for the graveyard, and he got the sense that it approved of that. It allowed him to work and formerly live there without too much disturbance, but Rost had never felt like that was a guarantee. He could upset the balance as easily as anyone else, and it would come to bite him. He felt safer not living there anymore, even though he missed his trailer sometimes. Rost squeezed Greer’s fingers again and pulled her hand up to kiss the back of it. “I worked without issue. It just makes me wonder if anything bad will be starting again.” He paused, then gave her a warmer smile. “I did not wish to worry you. It is just the nature of this place.”
It made sense to Greer. She didn't want to wake up every morning being afraid to leave their home. At the same time, she knew now that anything could happen at any time. Greer smiled softly when Rost kissed her hand. "I'm not worried," she promised, even if there might have been a little unease in her chest. "I know that if you ever felt in danger there, you would leave. And if you ever want company there, you know Dev and I will go too. I've always liked being there with you. And it's where you found me again." Her smile widened and she squeezed his hand gently. "I feel like some things have changed, including me. There have been some oddities, but nothing that makes me feel like I did before. Maybe it's just the town, I don't know."
Much like Point Pleasant itself, the cemetery held a lot of mixed experiences for Rost. He’d been happy there, he’d been terrified, he’d been uneasy, he’d felt at peace, he’d been terribly sad and yet blissfully happy with his loves. The human experience was vast, and he supposed it made sense that the place where so many lives had some to rest would be the same. Rost returned Greer’s smile and squeezed her hand back, then lifted a questioning eyebrow. Anything odd going on with Greer seemed much more important and urgent than the stone angels doing their strange slow dance. “What sort of oddities?” he asked.
Greer hesitated, almost wanting to wait for Dev to come back, but her lover was easily distractible and it could be a while. And she didn't want Rost to start pacing with worry. She watched people walk by for a moment, gathering her thoughts before she gave Rost a small smile. "Just... one oddity, I guess. It started happening a week or so ago... I wasn't sure what it was and..." Greer shrugged with a soft exhale. "I've been seeing things about people. Not like Dev, but... maybe it's a premonition, or just a warning, I don't know." It felt strange to explain and there was really no way to sugar coat it. "I think I've been seeing how people are going to die." Saying it out loud made it sound much more morbid than Greer had been considering it and she suddenly wondered if she had been too casual about it.
That was maybe the last thing Rost expected to hear, and it showed on his face. It definitely sounded like a big deal to him. He’d always been amazed at his lovers’ affinities for knowing things that were beyond human senses -- though he knew Dev’s gift was stronger than the glimmer of special intuition that Greer had. This though ... this sounded different. “Wow ... that is heavy. The people you have been seeing?” he asked, his stomach dropping in an uncomfortable sort of way. Rost nodded toward the small table in front of Greer to indicate the customers who’d come to be told what they wanted to hear. “Or ... us?” Maybe that was a selfish question to ask, but he couldn’t help himself.
Greer knew that once they understood what was happening to her, they might ask about themselves. Thankfully, she hadn't had any strange visions of Dev or Rost. She wasn't sure she could bear it if she had to see how they would die. Unless, of course, it was during their sleep at a very old age. "It's been random," she explained with a faint smile that didn't last very long on her lips. "It's not something I've been able to control. It happened a few times today. But it's happened before, when we've come into town for groceries, or whatever. I've not seen anything for you or Dev, and I have to admit, I'm relieved by that." She brought his hand up to her lips again. "I haven't told anyone what I've seen. I don't know that I could do that, unless they ask me to tell them, but even then they would have to know what's happening." Greer grimaced lightly. "I don't know why it's happening at all. Or if coming back from that place changed me somehow. It's not scaring you, is it?"
Rost was beyond relieved too that Greer hadn’t been seeing their deaths. She’d had more than enough traumat to deal with, that would’ve been some awful icing on an already shitty cake. He recognized how serious it was though, able to hear it in her voice as she spoke. Rost squeezed her fingers and shook his head to that question. “I worry for you, always, but I am not afraid,” he assured her. Rost gave her a very faint smile. “Of you, least of all.” He knew she was back to being fully Greer in her heart and soul, but this perturbing new talent was worrisome, if only for the sake of her mental health. “I am relieved for you as well, about us. I hope you never see. Has it been often? People nearby or just ... anyone? Are they always violent or more normal?” He was curious, but he was also hunting for a pattern, likely something that Greer had already thought about.
Greer tried to think of how often it had happened since she got her memory back. Because that was when it actually started. "It hasn't been every day," she explained. "And they're not always violent. A woman getting meat at the deli counter three days ago? She looked like she was maybe in her late fifties, but I saw her as a really old woman in the hospital with a lot of people by her bedside..." Greer trailed off, her throat thick before she swallowed and managed a smile for Rost. "It was lovely, actually. And it's only been people I've seen. That's when it happens. I don't know if it'll change, or maybe it'll just stop happening all together. I've been feeling... off... since I came back. Not bad, or like it was before, but like something inside me changed." Greer exhaled softly. "I'm sorry I didn't tell either of you before today, but I just kept hoping it was just me adjusting to being home."
Even though she smiled, Rost could hear the pain in her voice when she talked about the woman, and his heart broke for her a little. Greer was such an empathetic, sensitive soul, this seemed like an ability that wasn’t well suited to her personality. It worried him. Maybe it should have worried him for different reasons, maybe he should be taking it as a sign that infection was still affecting her, but that didn’t feel right. This was something different. His brows drew closer together as he listened to Greer talk about feeling off. He shook his head to her apology, his grip on her hand tightening briefly again. “Do not be sorry,” he murmured. “It is huge adjustment. You were gone so long, I cannot think that something inside you did not change, in such a place. Is there anything more you can name has been different? Your thoughts, feelings, hunger?”
Greer had no idea if this new change would last, or if it was just some glitch she was experiencing now that she was home. Of course she worried it could be another side effect from her infection months before, but it seemed to be the only anomaly she was experiencing. "Nothing really feels different but for that. I think it's just the feeling that I don't belong here... the same way I felt like I didn't belong in that place, when I found myself there for the first time. I'm happy to be home and with you and Dev, but there's something in my mind that makes me feel like a foreigner." Greer kissed his hand again and held it to her cheek for a moment. "I've been thinking about going out to the woods to find Max again, the witch's brother. If he's feeling the same way, then I know I'm not the only one."
It hurt a little to hear that Greer felt like a foreigner in her life, but Rost supposed he could understand. She’d been through a hell of a lot, for an extended period of time, that was bound to have some psychological effects on her that they couldn’t heal just with loving her. Rost didn’t want either of his loves to feel anything bad anymore, but that was out of his hands. He lightly stroked Greer’s fingers as she held his hand to her cheek, nodding a bit. “I will drive you if you want to go, anytime,” he told her, something she probably already knew, but he wanted to say anyway. “And give privacy to speak to him, of course.” He knew Shayna Mae well enough to feel comfortable wandering her garden to give Greer and Max room to talk candidly. “I am sorry, my love,” Rost added in a murmur. “I wish I could fix all for you.”
She knew Rost would offer to drive her, because he loved her and Greer knew she could depend on him and Dev for anything she might need. "I'll be fine," she promised him. "It's just an adjustment. And maybe it'll go away. If it doesn't, I'll find a way to deal with it." Maybe the witches could help. Or someone. Maybe she wouldn't need help. There were so many questions and not enough answers, but that was life in general, wasn't it? Greer leaned over to kiss him. "Thank you," she murmured. "And I'll tell Dev everything... just not here. I don't want him to worry too. Have you told him about the angels?"
Rost leaned in to meet her lips halfway, squeezing her fingers again. He hoped it did go away, that Greer would ease back into being Greer and that she would feel better about everything soon. But he wasn’t naive, he knew that might not happen at all. He just wanted all of them to be happy together, but he supposed that was a big ask sometimes in life. Rost gave a negative hum and shook his head at her question. “No ... I also did not want to worry him,” he answered with a small chuckle. It was kind of funny how they all tried to protect each other, all the time. It was just part of their love. Sometimes he thought that was balanced even better with three people rather than two. “I will not mention anything you said to him yet, until you talk to him,” Rost added as reassurance.
She gave him a small smile of appreciation before a bit of apprehension crossed her features. "I don't want him to think we're hiding things from him. I'll talk to him tonight about what's been going on. And we'll try to find out more about the statues." All Greer wanted was for Dev and Rost to be safe and happy. She didn't think the statues themselves were evil or dangerous, but maybe they were just... a symbol of something. Maybe they were there to warn people living in Point Pleasant. It was much easier, and nicer, to think about problems other than her own. Greer smiled, wanting to try and lighten the mood. "Would you play another song for me?"
He didn’t want to keep any real secrets from Dev either, and what Greer was going through was a lot more important and personal than the angel statues, so he supported talking to Dev sooner rather than later. Sensing that she wanted to change the subject even before she suggested he go back to music. “Of course,” he murmured. Rost gave her a warm smile back and pulled her hand in closer to kiss the backs of her fingers before he let her go. He reached for his guitar and pulled it in his lap, clearing his throat as he gave it a few strums. After a moment’s thought, he started plucking out a well-loved folk song, and started singing along with it, low and soft.