sweetchaos (sweetchaos) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2022-03-08 13:01:00 |
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Entry tags: | #june 2018, knox, knox x max, max |
Who: Max and Knox
When: midday, Sunday, June 24
Where: O'Reilly House
Knox didn’t really know what to make of what Aidan had told him, but he knew it wasn’t something he could ignore. The last time there had been a problem with Max, it had done harm to the family. Knox’s entire existence centered around preventing harm to the family, so it was his duty to follow up on this. If it turned out to be a threatening problem again ... well, Knox would have to do something about it. His priority was to keep everyone safe, Max included, so he hoped he wouldn’t have to put him out of the house again. At the very least this would be a much earlier intervention than the last time.
Leaving Aidan on the porch to make his exit however he chose, Knox made his way into the house, reaching out with his blood connection to the family to find Max. Patrick gave him a curious look as he passed straight through the living room toward the stairs, but Knox hardly glanced at him. He walked up to Max’s bedroom and lightly rapped his knuckles on the door.
Unaware that Aidan had finally broken the silence about his situation, Max wasn't really expecting anyone to bother him for anything. He hadn't even been awake for very long, just long enough to drag himself out of bed, brush his teeth and eat something. Now he was lounging on his bed, mindlessly scrolling through some listicles. "Come in?" he yelled just loud enough to be heard through the door at the knock, sitting up a bit before the door opened.
It wasn't really unusual for Knox to check in on him - or any of them - especially since Max had been kind of avoiding everyone for a while now. Everyone but Patrick who was more than happy to stay up all night, drink and listen to some good old fashioned 70s rock without delving into personal shit. He still got a slightly sinking feeling when he saw Knox now, maybe it was some micro-expressions or just general anxiety. "Hey man, what's up?" he asked, glancing back at his phone and pausing the music playing before pulling the one earbud out of his ear.
At least he looked relaxed and chill, Knox supposed that was the best way to start this kind of conversation. “Hey,” he greeted back. He closed the bedroom door behind him and went to sit on the foot of Max’s bed, comfortably pulling one knee up and gazing at him. He didn’t look any different to Knox, didn’t really feel different -- not like the last time. If that place had changed him, it was subtle to Knox’s senses. He hoped that was a good sign. “Are you all right?” Knox started, his voice quiet as he studied him. Maybe that was a stupid question, considering everything Max had been through, but it was a place to start, at least, and Knox really did care how he was doing.
Max studied him for a few seconds, narrowing his eyes and licking his lips. Yeah, he knew that look of concern and sure, he'd been getting it a lot in these last few weeks but coming back from hell was a stale subject now, there was no need to keep rehashing it so he suspected this was something new. Fucking Aidan. "Well, I'm a little sad they dropped the swimsuit competition from Miss America," he said and wiggled his phone. "But I guess most of those girls put up plenty of bikini pics on their social media. Are you okay? You look a little like you're having some kind of existential crisis."
In spite of his reason for being there, Knox huffed a soft laugh as he shook his head. “Not a crisis, just a concern,” he said. It wasn’t about his own existence, but that was as good of a lead in as any. Knox had never seen much point in beating around bushes when something needed to be discussed. “Aidan told me what happened while you were out with him and Aya ... walking through a wall? What’s going on, man?” He didn’t want to dwell on Aidan telling him about this, though he was sure Max was going to be angry about it. Knox just wanted to hear his side of the story.
Max didn't want to have this conversation until he had answers but it had been almost a week and he still had none. Whatever it was that was happening to him never happened at home and he didn't know if that was a coincidence or if it was because of the protective magic around the place. If it was the latter then that was a cause for concern, did it mean that whatever this was was dangerous? "I didn't walk through a wall," he said after dropping his phone on his lap, sighing and rubbing his face. "There was no wall." And that was about all he knew so far, was it any wonder he didn't feel ready to talk about it? "I'm trying to figure it out. As soon as I know something, I'll be happy to share."
“According to Aidan, both him and Aya saw a wall,” Knox pointed out, ignoring the last part. He wasn’t going to let Max put him off on this. It was already a cause for concern, and even if Max didn’t have any explanations yet, he still had more information than Knox did at this point. Considering what had happened before when they’d had no answers, he would hope Max could see the value in being more open about what he was experiencing. Knox couldn’t let this escalate into A Problem like it had before ... and he wanted Max to trust that his whole family was there to help him find those elusive answers. “So what did you see? Just ... nothing?”
If Max could talk to anyone about all of this, it was Knox. The familiar was old and not prone to getting all worked up about things like the rest of the family, maybe because he'd seen the rise and fall of generations of O'Reillys, or maybe because it just wasn't in his nature to freak out. Max drew a deep breath and shook his head. "Not nothing," he muttered and tried to peel down some of those defensive walls he'd raised around himself, to relax into talking. Shayne Mae would know all of this, that was the problem, but he hadn't really talked to anyone about what was going on yet and maybe doing so would help him make sense of it all. "Just something different. Like someone got the set pieces all mixed up, you know? The other night it looked like a part of the Porch wasn't there, there was just moss and shit where the building was supposed to be. Like photoshop or something."
Knox’s brow furrowed deeper as he listened. He kind of understood what ‘set pieces’ were, enough to get what Max was saying ... so he thought, anyway. It sounded like Max was seeing parts of the world differently -- but not only seeing, interacting with them differently, which was pretty fascinating. “Is it only buildings?” he asked, sounding curious on top of his concern. “Or have you seen differences in people? Other objects? Can you tell when it’s happening, or would you just not know if you didn’t already know what it was supposed to look like?” He had about a hundred more questions, but Knox stopped there. He didn’t want Max to feel interrogated, but all of this was fascinating.
"It hasn't happened that often," Max sighed and it probably didn't help that he'd been drunk for two of the occasions he could remember. "I feel like maybe the area..." he paused, scrunching his nose before he continued. "Shrunk. When Aya and Aidan came in. I wasn't paying close enough attention but last time... I'm pretty sure the room was all kinda decayed when I first stepped in there but when I left it was just a wall or two." He'd been irritated and distracted by Aidan and his whatever-the-hell-she-was and it was hard to make sense of any of it. "I'll try to tune in on my logical thinking if it happens again." He had to smirk at that, he knew himself well enough to know logical thinking wasn't his strongest point, he was a man who acted on impulses and chased pleasure rather than think things through and he knew Knox was well aware.
It was difficult to picture what Max was talking about, but Knox was doing his best. “And when you walked through it, did you feel anything?” he asked. He knew that Max wasn’t some level-headed mastermind, so he wasn’t surprised that he hadn’t retained all of the details. Knox kind of wanted to follow him around to see it, if and when it happened again, but he knew that would be going kind of overboard. “And do you feel ... anything like you did before?” That question was quieter, more serious.
Max shook his head, then shrugged. "It could be happening all the time and it's just so subtle I don't even see it. I definitely don't feel anything." Had he felt anything walking through that wall? Nothing he'd picked up on at the time, but he was going to have to go walk around some familiar areas in town just to see and experiment. Maybe he should take Knox with him, just in case things got weirder than they already were, but he also didn't much like the idea of dragging him around like a bodyguard or a babysitter. "Never happens around the house, dunno what that means." Never was probably an understatement, it wasn't like he'd noticed this happening a lot so maybe that was a coincidence so far.
Knox didn’t really know how to advise him. Everything Max had gone through had all been new problems for the familiar, stuff he’d never had experience with in all his long years. He didn’t know if it had all befallen Max because he wasn’t full-blooded family or he wasn’t a witch or he was just unlucky, but Knox was glad he didn’t seem to be going down the same path he’d gone months ago. “You don’t feel the same to me either,” Knox told him with a nod. “Not like before you disappeared, I mean. So that’s a good thing. I wonder ... I wonder if being there in that place unlocked something in you? Some latent psychic ability ... or it just straight up gave you one.” It was just an idea, but as he said it out loud, Knox thought it sounded kind of right. From what little Max had told him about that place, it was hard to imagine anyone coming out of it unaffected in some way. “Have you talked to any of the other survivors?”
"Nah, been on my way to talk to Greer," Max sighed and he'd been pretty content just getting drunk with Patrick and watching movies. Somehow going out and meeting people would just make this feel real and he hadn't felt up to it at all. "I- actually know where they're all at." He wasn't sure why he was bringing that up, but Knox had that way about him, he made Max open up if he got him in the right mood and he usually managed to get him there if he wasn't there already. "Like not exactly, but I know how far away they are, when someone leaves town, when someone's close by. Fuck, maybe we're all becoming a hivemind."
At least Greer was one of the ones Knox knew already. He was glad that Max had had someone over there who he cared to talk to again at all now that it was all over. Or the worst part was over. Hopefully. The word ‘hivemind’ had bad connotations, but Max didn’t sound freaked out about it or anything. Knox titled his head back and forth in a slow, thoughtful way. “Or maybe you’re all just connected forever by what you went through together,” he suggested quietly. “Doesn’t mean you’ll ever think the same. And maybe ... I dunno, maybe it will come in handy later, if they can all sense you too. Connection can be good.” It could also turn bad, but Knox didn’t want to talk about that part yet. “Will you tell me? If anything changes? I’m here for you too, and if we need to start taking steps ...”
"Let's not get to a point where we need to take steps," Max said with a wry smile. He could only imagine what those steps would need to be and none of them felt very positive. If things got as grim as they had been, Knox might have to kill him and that wasn't something either of them needed to be thinking about. He didn't really feel like pointing out that he was the worst person to ask either, he'd felt perfectly normal when he'd been draining the people he loved, it really hammered home the fact that a man's perception could easily be skewed. "If I thought I was a danger to any of you, I'd fuck off," he murmured. "But yeah, I'll tell you if anything changes." He paused, worrying at his bottom lip with his teeth for a second. "You're gonna tell my sister, aren't you."
“I mean steps to try and release you from ... whatever this is,” Knox clarified. He didn’t even know if it was harmful yet, to either Max or the rest of them. Could being exposed to some other dimension for so long give someone some sort of powers? Knox had no experience with any of it. But he didn’t want it to get to any point that would be dangerous for anyone, full stop. He gave Max a wan smile at the question that wasn’t really a question at the end. “You know I have to,” he said gently. “She’ll only want to help you.” He hoped Max knew that too, but he knew that the two of them didn’t always communicate the best, and he was sure Max was tired of being the center of Problems For The Family. “We don’t have to tell Patrick though, if you’d rather not.”
"Dad's better off in the dark," Max said and he wasn't overly optimistic about the prospect of being released. Magic hadn't helped before and even his return had been caused by something else - something he often feared had a purpose for him. "And Shayna Mae... There isn't anything she can do, you know that. You'll just be getting her worked up for nothing." He knew that wouldn't stop Knox, he'd moved past being their familiar to being far more to Shayna Mae, Max doubted he could keep anything from her and he couldn't deny that it changed the dynamic between them. Knox was right, he was sick of everyone always worrying about him, but at the same time he couldn't seem to stop getting himself into shitty situations.
“I wouldn’t call it nothing,” Knox said, giving Max a wan smile. It was true that Knox was more closely bound to Shayna Mae, but that was only right with her being the magical head of the family now. He hadn’t slept with all of the family leaders down through the years, each O’Reilly was unique and his love for them was too ... but he felt more for her than he had in a century, at least. He knew it made his relationships with the others a little different, but that couldn’t be helped. “I promise I won’t let her get worked up though. So far it’s not seeming to cause any harm, to you or to us. For all we know, it’s something special you can learn to harness and use, you know? I just ask that you keep us in the loop. We’re family.”
Shayna Mae rarely got worked up, that wasn't what Max was worried about, but she had a way of worrying at him that made him squirm. There was just something about sisters that way. He also wasn't super optimistic about something good actually happening to him so he just gave Knox a faint smile and tried not to let himself hope for some super power to come his way. "It's not nothing, no. But it's not a lot either," he said, brushing it off. "Nothing to write home about." But it was, wasn't it? If he was truly walking through walls because he thought they weren't there, that was kind of a big deal. And what if they showed up again and he got trapped in whatever room he'd just entered? What if he got trapped in a wall? It sure as hell made him not want to go any place he wasn't familiar with, that was for sure.
Knox just stared at Max for a beat, trying to suss out if he really believed that, or if it was some kind of denial -- to himself or to Knox. Or both. Maybe both. “Well ... if it happens again or something else changes ... write home, Max,” Knox urged him quietly. He couldn’t make Max talk to him or any of them, but he would definitely keep following up and asking. Knox just hoped he would understand why Knox couldn’t just let it go like Max seemed to want. He reached out to pat Max’s knee and then stood up. “Love you, buddy,” Knox told him, an affectionate nickname that rolled naturally off his tongue even if he hadn’t called Max that in years. “We’re all here to take care of each other, don’t forget.” He turned to head for the door.
"Love you too, big guy," Max replied, glad Knox wasn't going to keep drilling him about this. He was in denial and he realized that on some level. It was a powerful survival mechanism and he liked burying his head in the sand and ignoring problems for as long as he could. "Can you at least hold off on telling my sister until tomorrow? Give me one chill family dinner before she flips out on me?" It'd give him time to head into town and track down Greer and maybe she'd have some answers for him for when Shayna Mae started prodding him with her patented worried little frown.
Knox was pretty sure Shayna Mae wasn’t going to ‘flip out’ at him, but it wouldn’t do any good to say that, he guessed. In spite of being around for many generations of O’Reillys, their sibling dynamics were still a mystery to him sometimes. He paused as he reached for the doorknob and gave Max a little half-smile. He didn’t see any harm in the request, this thing was obviously slow-moving if it was moving at all, and it wasn’t like Shayna Mae was likely to concoct a brilliant solution in just a few hours or anything. “Sure,” he said. “Tomorrow then. See you later.” Knox opened the door and slipped out to let Max go back to his denial scrolling.