byflame (byflame) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2021-09-27 01:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | #june 2018, shane, shane x toby, toby |
Who: Shane & Toby
Where: Mercy Hospital
When: 1am in the morning, Tuesday morning 6/19
The first two hours of Shane's night alone in the hospital were not exactly easy but they made it easy to not want to leave. He slept a little after taking that oh so fun and painful cocaine piss and it was nice to be oblivious for a bit, especially since he never remembered his dreams. He was sure they wouldn't have been pleasant tonight, not with the drugs and his emotions all over the place. After those first two hours it became increasingly hard to stay calm and present. The hallways were so quiet with all the inpatients asleep and fewer people on shift. Everything was so sterile and the more Shane's body recovered, the more his mental state seemed to deteriorate. It wasn't often he had actual panic attacks but sometimes he felt close to it and as the minutes ticked by, oh so slowly becoming hours, he felt more and more agitated.
His hospital room in Mercy didn't exactly remind him of AIR. For one, the door was open and not only was there a window but the curtains were only half shut so he could see some lights outside. And yet, the smell, the hospital bed, the blank, white walls. It was making him feel claustrophobic and frustrated. He tried to sleep but the steady beat of his heart was too loud to allow for any rest and that agitation just kept growing.
Which was why he found himself in the hallway, unsure where he was going, just knowing that he needed to get out. He knew he wasn't really going anywhere, he didn't have clothes, a phone, car keys - any fucking thing - but maybe he could just go out for a little bit, remind himself he wasn't really stuck in this shitty place, that this wasn't really AIR. It was just so hard not to think AIR controlled every little nook and cranny of Point Pleasant, including this hospital. He'd changed his last name a long time ago but he still felt seen.
Toby had hit the ground running from the moment he showed up at work. There were no signs that anything was wrong today, it wasn’t a full moon, there wasn’t fog suffocating the town, but people were making bad decisions left and right. The ER had been a madhouse all day and it didn’t look like night was going to bring any sort of reprieve. He’d been there when Shane arrived and had stuck to Dr. Ford’s side until he was stable, but people kept coming in and he’d eventually been pulled away.
It seemed to calm down close to midnight, finally granting the ER a reprieve. Toby began making his rounds, going room to room and checking on his patients. Most of them were asleep, but he still checked their vitals and made sure they were comfortable. He was heading back towards the nurse’s station when he felt an instinctual tug the opposite direction. He stood there, waiting, then turned on his heel and headed the opposite direction, not even sure what he was looking for until he saw him. Toby’s feet moved faster, jogging so he could close the distance between them before he spoke. “Shane,” he said, voice soft but firm. “Hey. What’s going on? You should be in bed.”
The rush of relief Shane felt when he saw Toby was intense enough that it almost had him bawling. If Toby was there actually working then this wasn't AIR and even if he knew that, technically at least, it was harder to convince his emotions of the fact. "Toby," he exhaled more than said and flung his arms around the nurse, pulling him in for a tight hug. "Thank fucking god." It was hard to trust people but Toby had been there seventeen years ago, just as traumatized and afraid as everyone else, he was one of the originals, he hated AIR as much as Shane did. "I hate this place," he mumbled. "I couldn't stay in there."
Toby had long ago shrugged the association between hospitals and AIR, but that was because he worked there. He knew Mercy inside and out, and while it had it’s own set of issues, he’d never felt trapped there. He instinctively knew that most people hated hospitals, as they associated them with sickness and death, but it wouldn’t surprise him at all to learn that it was more than that for Shane. He could almost sense it just in the way he hugged him, like he was a lifeline. “You should be resting,” he said gently, the nurse in him coming out. “But if you need some air, let’s walk. We can swing by the vending machines, get something in your stomach.” There was nothing in those machines that was even remotely healthy, but something was better than nothing.
Both of those things sounded good and Shane was relieved Toby wasn't insisting he go back to his room. "I feel good enough to go home now," he mumbled and it had been at least twelve hours. Why couldn't he overdose at night like a normal person? He could be going home after twelve hours if it wasn't the middle of the god damn night now. "I just don't have keys, or a car, or clothes." He was so fucked if Reza left but these things were the least of his worries if he did. "I fucked up so bad," he mumbled, letting Toby lead the way to the vending machine. "It was all just so fucking wrong."
“I know. But I can’t discharge you in the middle of the night. We’ll get you out of here first thing in the morning,” Toby said, hoping that would help sooth Shane just a little. He knew he preferred to be at home, in his own bed, with his own clothes, but he’d just have to wait. “It’s been one of those days. You’re not the only one to go a little overboard. I just hope that desire has passed?” he asked, raising a brow in Shane’s direction. He knew Shane dabbled in drugs, but he hadn’t taken him for an addict. Besides that being a huge liability to their plans, Toby was worried about him. Hopefully one OD was enough to make him give up coke for good.
"Yeah," Shane said quietly but only after checking in with himself to make sure. The fact he'd still wanted more even when he woke up with a throbbing headache in a hospital bed had cued him in that something was not right, Reza had confirmed it later that it seemed to be a 'town thing'. That didn't make the things he said and thought okay though and the fact he'd wanted to violate Reza was hanging over him like a dark cloud. "I almost hurt Reza," he mumbled. "I was just so... angry. Paranoid. I think he's gonna leave." Considering that was what Shane had wanted, for Reza to get the hell out of dodge, he sure as hell felt miserable about it now.
“It’d be safer if he did,” Toby said softly, aware that probably wasn’t what Shane wanted to hear. Maybe Shane had thought he could shield Reza from AIR, but now he’d had a dose of just what this town could do all on its own. They should all probably leave, but he knew they wouldn’t. They were too invested and, for Toby at least, this was his home. “He seems invested though. In you. And… this is gonna sound weird, but he seems the sort to be able to handle this place.” The fact that Reza was a witch was a big plus, and that he knew about Shane and his friends. It wasn’t as far a jump to understanding that weird things happened for no reason.
"He might not leave town," Shane mumbled, stopping by the vending machine and hating the fact he didn't have any money on him. He hadn't had to rely on others to buy him things in a long time and it didn't bring back the best of memories. But this was Toby, he reminded himself he'd let him borrow a whole damn house for the weekend, he could accept a damn soda. "He's gonna leave me though, I was... I said some shit. Some really awful shit." He couldn't bring himself to say he'd wanted to hurt him, he wondered if Toby picked up on it with his gift. What had he said about loud thoughts? Shane was pretty sure this one was loud, it felt like it reverberated through his whole body, hurting his chest the most.
Toby stopped at the vending machine and pulled enough money out of his wallet for a candy bar and some orange soda. It probably wasn’t Shane’s preference, but he didn’t need anything with caffeine in it, not after what he’d been though, not at one in the morning. He looked up at Shane, then hesitantly reached out and touched his arm, almost flinching at the onslaught of emotions. As much as he tried to prepare himself, sometimes it wasn’t enough, especially when someone was projecting. “Did you actually say it? Or did you just think it?” he asked, drawing his hand back. “I hate to say it, but… it’s probably good you blacked out when you did. Before things got worse.” He almost said it could’ve been something Shane would regret, but he already regretted the whole incident.
"I said I didn't trust him," Shane said and his face scrunched up in abject misery as his eyes started filling with tears. He felt weak and stupid and alone, even if Toby was right there. Reza had gone home, Shane found it hard to believe he'd be back and he felt tired and frustrated and very, very lost. Toby was right, the overdose was well timed if nothing else but it made him think Reza really should leave, that he'd be far better off without him. What if this happened again? What if he didn't lose consciousness? "I've never wanted to hurt anyone, I don't know what the fuck that was," he sobbed, angrily wiping tears from his face. "I don't know what the fuck is wrong with me."
Sometimes Toby wished he was an empath instead. He wished he could touch a person and take away some of their burden, give them a bit of peace. Knowing and understanding what Shane was going through wasn’t quite the same, but Toby did what he could, what felt right. “You were coked out when you said it,” he said gently, giving Shane a small hug before pulling back and rubbing his arm, soothing him. “Coke makes people do mean and ugly things. Things they wouldn’t say or do sober. Throw out what you have. Apologize. Profusely. Show him that’s not you and that it won’t happen again. I’m not saying you have to stop partying, but maybe stick to weed or… something that won’t take you back there.”
"It's not just the coke," Shane mumbled, pressing his hands to his face. "It's everything. He broke me and I'm just so fucked up right now and I keep pissing him off." At least he could blame this crying on the overdose or the medication they'd given him, even if he felt very sober by now, but everything else was just his messed up mind. "I want to want him to leave, but I don't. I don't know what I want." If this was what love was then he didn't understand why people wanted it so badly; it fucking hurt and was all around a mess. "I don't know how to do this."
“Here. Come here. Sit down,” Toby said, dragging Shane over to a table and chair that sat in the break room. He took the seat next to him, then took Shane’s hand. “You care about him. A lot, I think. It makes you uncomfortable, but you’re not fucking broken, honey. You want him to leave because you want to protect him. You want him to stay because he helps keep you sane, because we want the people we love to be near us, not far away. I don’t have to read your mind to know these things. Things are fucked up and, believe it or not, it’s not all your fault.” Part of it was, of course, but not all of it. Toby seriously doubted that Shane would have OD’d if he weren’t in Point Pleasant. The town was making things complicated, and that was on top of all the AIR bullshit they were already dealing with.
Shane was pretty sure he'd never loved anyone. Dumb crushes and infatuation probably didn't count, especially when it had all turned out to be bitter and meaningless in the end. Reza though, Reza had wormed his way into more than just his bed and half the time Shane wished he hadn't. It was a little jarring to hear Toby say as much and just as jarring to realize he might have actual friends now, friends who gave a shit about him and.. he gave a shit about in turn. He didn't want to say everything that was running through his mind but he had the uncomfortable feeling that Toby was reading him like an open book anyway. Maybe that was what he needed, someone to know what he was thinking without him having to try to talk about it.
Toby was quiet for a moment, watching Shane and trying not to pick up every little feeling or thought that popped into his head. It felt intrusive. Shane wasn’t just a patient that he was trying to care for, but a friend that he wanted to help even outside the hospital. They barely knew each other, but Toby felt invested. He didn’t just want them to survive, he wanted to see them flourish, despite the odds stacked against them. “Was that… out of line?” he asked softly, then smiled softly. “It’s maybe a lot to deal with on top of feeling like shit.” But he thought Shane could handle it, even if he didn’t really want to. Time was, unfortunately, out of their hands.
Shane covered his face in his hands, focusing on breathing slowly and trying to quell that urge to really ugly-cry. It helped to rock a little and Toby's question made him huff a pained little laugh before he shook his head and wiped his face with a sniffle. "No," he said. "I just- I don't know if I love him, I don't know if I've ever loved anyone. I don't know what the fuck that looks like." If it looked like this, it was a fucking mess and maybe that made sense after all. He was hurting, the thought of Reza leaving felt like barbed wire being dragged through his stomach, shredding him inside out. "It was supposed to be simple."
“Maybe it’s not love,” Toby shrugged, keeping his voice soft and soothing. “But it seems… it seems like you genuinely care for him. You want him to be happy beyond getting laid. You want him around, but you want to keep him safe. I think people avoid love because it’s never simple. It makes you care about someone else’s feelings, instead of just your own.” Love was hard for selfish people and Toby thought maybe that was the kind of life that Shane had been accustomed to. That didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of love, just that it wasn’t something he was looking for, and he hadn’t seemed to notice it until it came around and bit him on the ass.
Genuinely caring seemed a lot less intimidating than loving someone, but maybe it was the same thing and Shane was just another dummy who didn't know jack about shit. Toby was at least right on the money about the selfish part, Shane wasn't used to caring about anyone but himself and the few times he'd veered off that path it had only caused him heartache and frustration so solitude and hedonism had been so much easier than sharing his life with people. Until Reza. It was weird to think about how meeting Reza was such a turning point in his life and with Jane contacting him right around the same time maybe it was no wonder he felt like his life was in a major upheaval. "I don't want to be here," he mumbled, and the only thing giving him some grace right now was that it was the middle of the night so the hospital corridor wasn't busy with people. "Can we go outside now?"
Toby wondered if Shane was speaking about the hospital or Point Pleasant in general, though he’d wager a guess that it applied to both. Maybe he already had a drug problem, but this place definitely exacerbated things like nowhere else. “There’s a courtyard around the corner where we can step outside for a few, so long as you promise not to run on me,” he said with a little smile. He didn’t think Shane was that stupid, but desperate people did desperate things and Shane had already run from his troubles once in his life. Granted, this seemed much smaller by comparison, but everyone’s tipping point was different. “Come on,” he said, rising from his seat. “It’ll be nice to get some air. Things have been crazy since I got here. We could both use a breather.” And he had his pager on if there was an emergency.
Shane felt a little better once they were outside and he had his orange soda and some candy to nibble on. It made him want to excuse his little outburst by saying he'd just been hungry but he wasn't about to start bullshitting someone who could probably hear all his loud thoughts clear as radio tonight. "I haven't been in a hospital since... I don't know. Two thousand and five? Six?" He felt like smoking, or chewing on something burnt and at least that didn't feel like an out of the blue urge, it was a pretty common one when he was upset. In fact all those intense urges seemed to have faded at last and Shane felt intensely relieved by it. "I walked out of there," he continued. "Just stormed right out. So if you hadn't been here tonight might have been the third time I strut around town in the middle of the night in hospital gear."
“Well, then, I’m exceedingly happy not to report you as missing. The paperwork is atrocious,” Toby smiled, climbing onto one of the nearby benches and perching on the back. “A lot of people don’t like hospitals. You’ve got a good reason not to. But I promise I won’t let anything bad happen to you while you’re here. The people are good. I trust ‘em.” And Toby didn’t trust everybody. Knowing when people were lying, or had a bad intent, had made him less trusting over the years. People loved to party with him, but didn’t often realize he was keeping them at arm’s length. It felt safer that way. Lately a lot of that safety had been compromised, but it felt good to trust people, especially when they trusted him. “Why were you hospitalized in two thousand five?”
"You don't smoke, do you?" Shane asked, ignoring the question for now. He didn't really want nicotine, if he was honest he just wanted matches or paper to burn and taste, it was soothing at times like these. "A lot of nurses smoke, it's kinda funny if you think about it. I can't remember if you do." He took another bite of his candy and raised his head to stare up at the sky. His eyes felt heavy now and his head was starting to hurt again, crying really hadn't helped.
“Not on the job, no,” Toby said, but reached into his breast pocket and pulled out one cigarette to hand to Shane. “I know how bad it is for me. But it’s the lesser evil somedays. I keep one on me just in case.” He didn’t have a lighter on him, but Shane wouldn’t need one. For Toby, it was an additional deterrent, a way to keep himself from giving in to a bad habit, but he wondered if it even mattered for Shane. “I bet you could smoke a pack a day and your lungs would still be squeaky clean.”
"Nah," Shane murmured as he let a little fire flare up at the tip of the cigarette. "Too much weird shit in these things, now pure paper or wood? That's all good." He took a long drag of the cigarette until the paper felt hot against his fingers and already he felt calmer with the smoke filling his lungs. "It's a bad habit, you should give it up," he murmured as he let the smoke clear his lungs again, feeling a bit of a headrush from the nicotine already. It was none of his business of course, and rich coming from a guy who'd just overdosed - and not for the first time - he was well aware of that.
“Yeah, I know,” Toby said. “I started in high school and just haven’t kicked the habit. Not completely. Sometimes I go days without one. Maybe a week, maybe two. I’m pretty sure something worse than cigarettes will take me.” He didn’t think that was abilities speaking—his precognition rarely included his own future—but a bit of pessimism that came with living the kind of life he had. They had. It was so easy to see himself in Shane’s shoes, even if coke had never been his thing. All he’d wanted was an escape, but the things he was running from were ghosts in his head. At least, he’d hoped they were. Not they were real again. Cigarettes were the least of his worries.
"At least it's not heroin," Shane huffed softly, rubbing at his eyes. "I really wanted some earlier. I haven't used any since, fuck... Probably in ten years. Never got addicted, never used a needle, but yesterday I felt like a fucking junkie." He took another deep drag of the cigarette, closing his eyes for a moment before focusing back on Toby. "Do you think it was them? Fucking with everyone?" Was he ever going to stop feeling like a test subject? AIR had already fucked him up so badly and now he felt like they had their claws in him again - even if they probably didn't know he was back.
“I’m glad you didn’t have any on you, honey,” Toby sighed. “That shit can fuck you up.” Shane was lucky to be alive as it was. If he’d been mixing things up, who knows if he would have survived. “I don’t… I don’t think they have that kind of reach,” he said, somewhat hesitantly. “It’s too random. You weren’t the only overdose today. It seemed to be a day for over-indulging all around. It’s probably just… Point Pleasant doing it’s thing.” He wasn’t sure if Shane really knew what that meant. He’d been away for so long, there was a chance that he thought AIR was the most dangerous thing about being there. He probably hadn’t considered the town itself to be a threat.
"Jane said they'd been running experiments on the town," Shane muttered. "Maybe Point Pleasant doing its thing has something to do with them. Everyone going crazy all of a sudden? It sure as shit sounds like some fucked up social experiment to me." He stubbed out the cigarette which he'd burned up far too fast, then twirled the filter between his fingers, not wanting to dump it on the ground. "At least it's over for now, I think. You didn't feel any of that weirdness yourself?" He picked up his drink again, chugging down some of it and letting the sugar do its job to perk him up a little.
“Maybe they have. But some of the stuff that’s happened… if that’s the case, they could have us in an instant. We’re way out of our league,” Toby said, hoping that wasn’t true. If AIR could manipulate a whole town, then it seemed smarter to run and hide. He thought of the fog, and of Adrian, and the phantom organization that had held him captive, the one that wasn’t AIR. There were too many moving parts in this damn town. It seemed impossible to pin the event on anyone, even with his abilities. “Yeah, I think it’s over. I didn’t feel it this time, but I’ve felt things like it in the past. It messes with your head.”
"Sure does," Shane sighed and his mind absolutely felt messed with on so many levels, he just felt tired by now. And maybe Toby was right. It was possible that AIR was just flinging out shit at random to see what would stick, which did sound a little more manageable than some all-seeing, all-knowing organization that was playing this town like a puppet. If it was all more targeted, they were too powerful and Shane didn't need to feel that pessimistic about what was coming. "So this happens a lot, huh?"
“It comes and goes,” Toby said. “This is the first big thing in a while. The last was in January and it seemed to affect everyone on some level. The ER was overflowing with people who were comatose for no good reason, or victims of some form of violence. It was like people were losing their minds. We had over a dozen deaths that we just couldn’t figure out. And then suddenly everything was fine again. Everyone that was comatose woke up and went home. And there were people missing. Some of ‘em just recently showed back up, but had amnesia, so we have no idea where they were or what happened to them.” He knew it sounded insane, but so did the fact that Shane could start fire with his brain. Toby could be a chronic liar, but he was telling the truth about this. He wasn’t even exaggerating.
"Isn't that what happened to Vex?" Shane asked, and while the details on that whole affair were still a little fuzzy. "He went missing and a bunch of other people too." Maybe he should talk to Vex, he just wasn't so sure if he'd get a straight story out of the guy, and he might not be inclined to divulge any details if he didn't believe it was related to AIR because that made it none of Shane's business. He filed away that additional information for later, people being comatose was definitely a bad thing, what if AIR had the ability to knock them all on their ass?
“Yeah, I think he was one of them,” Toby nodded. “There might be more to it, it wouldn’t surprise me if there is, but it’s not something I’ve looked into. I get the sense that there were a lot of people involved.” He could probably make some wild guesses as to who, but he didn’t want to send Shane on a wild goose chase if he was wrong. Or worse, sent him to someone who was involved, but was dangerous. “But that’s just one example. Last Halloween, almost half the town suddenly thought they were whatever they dressed up as. Which is fine if you’re a clown, or a fairy, or a cat. Not so great if you’re dressed as a Jason and suddenly get your hands on an ax. It got written off as drugs in the candy, I think, but I swear to God, I think it was bigger than that.”
Shane's frown deepened as Toby spoke and he was starting to feel like maybe he should be getting the fuck out of this town, or at least making sure Reza left. That shit just brought up conflicting and hurtful feelings and yet again he didn't really know how to feel. "A lot of people dress up as psychopaths," he muttered. "How bad did it get?" He might have let his imagination run away with him but he was honestly too tired to put much effort into anything tonight and as he spoke he stared kind of blankly at his soda.
“The ER was packed,” Toby said, thinking back on that night. He’d been kind of annoyed that he had to work, wishing he could go out and party with the rest of them, but it turned out to be a good thing. They’d needed his help and there was no telling what would have happened if he’d been in costume. “The cops had their hands full. More people were hurt than actually died, but I’ll be honest, it was bad. We had a guy that broke both his legs because he thought he was Spiderman, so it wasn’t just the pretend serial killers wrecking havoc. But then, people move on. I doubt it will effect Halloween next year, except for the people that ended up in the ER.”
"I'll make sure to dress up as something harmless if I'm still alive next Halloween," Shane muttered. "Fuck, that's insane." More people were hurt than actually died meant that someone had died and it was kind of amazing to Shane that people just moved on from that. "I shouldn't have brought Reza here," he sighed, tilting his head back and closing his eyes, exhaustion rolling over him again. It was annoying, considering how much he'd slept already, but he supposed overdosing kind of messed with a guy's body that way. "I sometimes think about drugging him and driving him out of town. He's too stubborn, he'd find his way back."
“Maybe not, but you thought AIR was the only threat,” Toby pointed out. Shane hadn’t lived in Point Pleasant long enough to get a real taste of it. They’d just been kids. And he doubted Jane would have filled him in on anything that might have kept him away. “But he’s here. And like you said, probably not going away, so… make the best of it. He’s a witch, right? He’s probably better equipped to deal with some of this than we are.” Witches were still a new element to Toby, something he’d always heard whispers about, but didn’t really know enough about skill wise. But from what he could tell, witches continued to survive in their town, so they must be doing something right.
"I can fight danger from the outside," Shane huffed. "Just as well as any witch. It's when my own head gets fucked up that- I don't know. How the hell do you fight that? I had no idea something was off, it's like they got inside my head and warped it. They, or the town, or whatever the fuck is doing this." He couldn't burn that away, his powers were useless against that kind of manipulation. "I wonder if those witches can put up some kind of protective magic against that kind of danger." Reza could learn, he was smart and capable and already picking up a thing or two from the locals.
“I don’t know,” Toby admitted. “They’re kind of an unknown to me, but it sounds plausible. At the very least, maybe there’s a way to protect someone from themselves if things get out of hand. And if there’s healing magic? Modern medicine is good, but it’s be fuckin’ nice to have some of that shit on hand.” Shane had been lucky. Reza had gotten him help immediately and his recovery was going fantastically well. But there were instances where the ER was overwhelmed and Toby sometimes wondered what it would be like to have someone there with actual healing powers. He didn’t know if that was a thing, but it seemed a lot more practical than most of the shit they could do.
Shane didn't really understand magic either and for a while he hadn't understood the difference between his abilities and Reza's. He'd seemed so much like a psychic in the way he manipulated sounds - but now Shane knew Reza could learn spells and that was a game changer. "I'm not worried about hurting myself," he said quietly. "This was really the best possible outcome." He'd almost hurt Reza and that would have been far worse than anything else he could imagine happening. It hurt enough to see the uncertainty in Reza's eyes, being hated by him would be hell.
“You might not be worried, but I suspect Reza’s worried,” Toby pointed out. “Hell, I’m worried, but there’s not much I can do about it.” Shane had almost died and it had nothing to do with his abilities or AIR. This was only the best possible outcome because there was no permanent damage, but Toby would have preferred one where Shane hadn’t OD’d in the first place. “I know we barely know each other, but I consider you a friend, and I don’t like seeing my friends get hurt.”
That didn't really make Shane feel better but he glanced at Toby with a faint and crooked smile, shaking his head ruefully. "Well I'm gonna be okay for now," he muttered. "Okay for long enough to take down the enemy, I hope. I'll ask my newfound witch crew if they can put up protections of some kind. Should come in handy, if they can." Not that it had done much for Vex and the other people when they'd gone missing, but maybe a spell had to be very specific for it to work.
Toby wanted to ask if Shane was going to be okay beyond their short term goals, but it felt like he might be asking too much of Shane. For whatever reason, that felt like too big an ask coming from himself, maybe from anyone. He hoped Reza could handle him because Toby had been honest about considering Shane a friend. He’d do what he could to help, but it felt a little like his own abilities fell short. “I love that you have a whole crew of witches now,” he said with a hint of amusement. “Does that make them a coven?”
"I wish they were my witches," Shane said with a faint smile and Toby had done the right thing taking this conversation path instead of probing at what Shane had said. Talking about the witches was better than talking about the death he was almost sure was coming for him, had been sure was coming for him any moment now since he was a kid. At least now it seemed more likely, they were trying to take down a conglomerate of evil and Shane wasn't exactly optimistic. "I'd have them do all sorts of stupid shit for me. And not so stupid shit of course. Right now they're just - I just met them. They're on our side, they know Vex."
“Vex having a crew of witches is somehow much scarier,” Toby said with a little laugh. “I’m sure you’ve got the brains, but he seems creative in a chaotic neutral kind of way. You never know which way he’s gonna go.” He’d still rather have him on their side, especially if his visions could be of any help. He was one of the few that Toby didn’t quite understand what he could do, but he could see the connections between them, like a spiderweb slowly coming together. “What can Reza do?” he asked, hoping that was an okay subject. Toby figured that as long as they didn’t get into feelings, they should be okay.
"Yeah that guy is-"Shane started and faltered at finding words. He huffed a small laugh instead. "And his little friend? They're odd." He nodded, content with that word for now and it wasn't necessarily a bad thing, he just wasn't so sure he could fully trust them. The question about Reza was okay so he realized he probably considered Toby a friend too, someone he could actually tell this stuff to without feeling like he was betraying Reza's trust. "He's an air witch," he said and the words didn't exactly roll off the tongue easily. "I mean - he can make gusts of wind and manipulate sound and a whole lot of other shit I don't even know yet." Thinking about Reza brought back that ache in his stomach and he leaned back on the bench, slurping down more of his orange soda. "He can talk to me from the other end of the house like we're on some speaker system or something, it's wonky."
“You say that like there’s different types of witches,” Toby said, though he could already see how that might make sense. There were different types of psychics. In fact, he’d never met a single person that had the same power as another person. It seemed like, when it came to extra abilities, there was little consistency. “That’s wild,” he smiled. “For some reason I thought there’d be cauldrons and spell books, not sound manipulation. I wonder how that works. Can he just talk to you? Or can you hear him?” He didn’t know if it extended to Reza projecting his voice or something like that. It would also be a neat trick if he could throw it and make it sound like he was somewhere he wasn’t.
"Both," Shane replied. "It's trippy. But yeah, there's fire witches and air witches and water witches? I don't know how many kinds there are or how it really works. But there's spells too. Reza's going to learn some from the locals. I just hope he doesn't hex me." He huffed and smiled wryly. That wouldn't be the worst thing to happen between them, he was sure. "Fuck, I'm getting tired again. Stupid overdose, I feel old right now." He supposed that was a good thing if he could at least sleep through the night but at the same time he didn't want to go back inside. It was nice out here and being with someone he liked was preferable to being alone or surrounded by strangers.
“You know the solution there is to not do anything worth hexing you over,” Toby grinned. He could tell Shane to apologize, and point out that Reza had been so broken up about his situation that he doubted he’d ever lay a hand on him, but he decided to keep it light instead. Shane surely knew the first and he’d probably figure out the second, if he hadn’t already. “You should be inside, resting. I can sit with you, if you want. We’ll find something on the tv. I just have to make my rounds every once and a while, but most people are asleep.” That made his job easy, which was a nice reprieve after how insane the earlier evening had been.
Shane didn't really like the fact that he didn't want to be alone. He was used to being alone, it had been his preferred state for years now, but Toby's words made him feel hopeful and he looked at him as he thought about it. "You'd do that? I probably won't be good company, I think I can actually sleep more." But maybe Toby could stay until he felt calm enough to sleep. It made him feel a bit like a dumb kid to want that, but maybe he was entitled to being a little juvenile after almost dying because of a stupid spell - or whatever this had been.
“Of course,” Toby smiled. “If you wanna sleep, sleep. I’ll go find something else to do. But if you want company, I don’t mind. I know what it’s like to need a distraction until your mind settles.” He also knew that sometimes people didn’t want to be alone, but didn’t want to say so. That was the gift his abilities had given him, one that allowed him to be an even better nurse than he’d be without them. He didn’t need good company—he’d sat with a comatose patient at the funeral home for months and been fine—but he wanted to make sure that Shane was okay and that was easier done when he was close by.
Shane felt like crying again, for different reasons this time. It was weird to have people caring about him, even when there was nothing in it for them. He supposed Toby benefited from having 'the fire guy' on his side in the upcoming battle but this felt like it ran deeper than that. Or maybe Reza was just making him sappy and blind to people's motivations. "Thanks," he murmured quietly. "Let's head on in then. You can listen to me snoring while you watch tv."
“Sounds like a good time to me,” Toby laughed softly, leading the way back inside and to Shane’s room. He wanted to hug Shane and tell him it was going to be okay, but he thought just being there was a better option. He himself was a sap, and loved being loved on whenever possible, but that didn’t mean Shane was the same. Besides, sitting with him until he dozed off probably said enough. Toby would’ve done it for anyone if they asked, but Shane was a friend, so he didn’t even have to.