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Caleb Danvers (c_danvers) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2019-07-11 09:13:00

Who: Sons of Ipswich (Caleb, Pogue, Tyler, Reid)
What: Reassuring Reid after his fear incident and Caleb explaining the Dreams
Where: Local beach
When: A couple days after this
Rating: PG-13; swearing
Status: Complete



Pizza eaten and drinks secured the group of friends had left the eatery and had made for the beach because it was a nice day and looked to be turning into a pleasant evening. Reid was normally the loudest one of the group but had been the complete opposite to the point where he’d barely said a word and just let the interactions wash over him. He was still feeling fragile and definitely not okay from the lingering effects of whatever had happened in that bar. Rationally he knew that what he’d seen and heard wasn’t true, evident by how Tyler had dropped everything to come out to him, but he still had very vivid memories of what it was like to be ignored by Caleb and shoved by Pogue with suggestions he just go away on a permanent basis. Pogue had noticed Reid’s quietness and arched a questioning eyebrow in Tyler’s direction on more than one occasion. Eventually they secured a spot on the beach and with a handy here’s a blanket I happen to have they settled down to watch the ocean as it broke over the shore.

Tyler was a demonstrative soul, quick to soak up the physical affection offered to him whenever it was available; he would fold into his friends for hugs, bump shoulders with them whenever they walked together and generally was often found to be physically close to at least one of his friends at all times but today was different. As much as Reid was folded into himself, Tyler had a hold of his hand, fingers laced together in a quiet reassurance, squeezing every now and then until he tugged Reid down onto the blanket beside him. "Dinner and a picnic?" he asked with a little grin, shot towards Caleb and Pogue. "I kinda feel like we've gatecrashed a date. Or... uh, been invited to datecrash."

Reid was setting a weird vibe for their hangout because he hadn't come clean with what happened to make him act this way. And everyone knew something had happened - that's just how it went when you've been friends since you were children. Caleb worried his bottom lip slightly with his teeth as they made their way to the beach and found a spot to sit down at. He threw Pogue a few glances with a confused look on his face and watched as Tyler held onto his not-yet-boyfriend; Caleb and Pogue had started a betting pool on when that would finally happen. That comment from Tyler made him chuckle a little and he shook his head before reaching over to ruffle up Tyler's hair, "Only if that date is between you and me, pretty boy." He was just glad that he and Pogue didn't have to explain their relationship to Reid and Tyler after the fact. Everything was just like normal except Caleb and Pogue sat a little closer to each other on nights out like this.

Normally Reid would have said something in response to Caleb’s teasing but there was literally no reaction, he just chewed on the edge of his thumb nail. “Okay dude what the fuck?” Pogue challenged, concern clear.

“Huh?” Reid asked with a blink of his surprisingly owlish blue eyes. Pogue frowned. “What’s going on with you? You’ve been weird all day.” Reid shrugged his shoulders. “I had a really fucked up night last night.” “What kind of fucked up night?” Reid snorted quietly. “It sounds crazy.”

"It's not crazy," Tyler told him, reaching out with one hand and tugging Reid's thumb out of his mouth before he made himself bleed. "I mean- it's weird, but some of the stuff I've seen on the network is weird." He glanced at Pogue and Caleb, "Reid was at a bar last night and someone, I dunno, released some kind of mass hallucinogen that made everyone get stuck in some kind of nightmare."

That definitely made Caleb frown and that worry line appeared in the middle of his forehead. Someone had a mass hallucinogen? There had to be some kind of group that would prevent something like that from happening because that could have dangerous consequences.

"It's not weird, there's strange stuff going on around here tied to the network. I don't know how someone could release something like that. I'm sorry it happened to you, Reid. What can we do to help you?"

Reid glanced between his friends and fidgeted for a moment as his hand strayed to tug restlessly at the fraying parts of his jeans. “I uh-“ he cleared his throat. “You don’t want me to fuck off and kill myself, right, Pogue?”

Pogue’s eyes widened at that and he hurriedly shook his head even going so far as to wrap his hand around Reid’s neck to pull him into a hug. “No fucking way, man. Never.”

Reid just nodded and then lifted his gaze to Caleb. “And no matter how fucking trying I am you wouldn’t just ignore me, right?” He was seeking clarity but more importantly reassurance that his fear was just that: an irrational never to come to pass bullshit fear.

Caleb didn't let his surprise show on his, but that's how he felt when Reid seemed to admit some fears that he had that may have come up with that weird nightmare hallucinogen. It was a little heartbreaking to know that Reid feared losing his friends and Caleb knew that he and Pogue would never let that happen to him. "I can never quit you, Reid," Caleb commented with a smile. The two of them may butt head on a few things, but he was never going to abandon his friend no matter what happened. He moved to also pull Reid into a hug.

Reid really fucking hated how weak and vulnerable he felt right now. It made him so uncomfortable and that much was evident in how after allowing himself to indulge in the reassurances and comforts of Pogue and Caleb he withdrew and settled back in beside Tyler, a small nod accompanying the movement. "Okay, cool. That's good."

Pogue cracked open a beer and passed it over to Reid before doing the same with another two, this time for Caleb and Tyler. "So, anything else happen that we ought to know about?"

Tyler just shifted a little when Reid re-settled beside him, making space for the blond in the same way he always did and lifted his shoulder, fingers catching Reid's briefly but not holding on in case he didn't want to anymore since he'd had his worried sort of assuaged. "No?" he asked, taking the beer. "Should there be?"

Caleb really wasn't super thrilled about the idea of telling Reid and Tyler about the Dreams, but they deserved to know. He ran a hand through his hair before taking the beer from Pogue. He made sure to brush his fingers over his boyfriend's since they couldn't exactly make it a PDA moment right now. Their friends may be cool with them dating, but Caleb didn't want to push it by making out with Pogue in front of them. "Have you seen that the network talks about Dreams a lot? Have you had any weird dreams lately?"

Reid caught Tyler’s fingers in response and held on because sure his concerns had been put more to rest but Tyler had been the one to talk him off the figurative cliff edge so it would be a dick move to just reject his touches because he’d spoken to Caleb and Pogue. “Define weird,” he said before he took a sip of his drink. “Or you might hear something you don’t wanna.”

Pogue offered Caleb a warm reassuring smile and reached across to squeeze the back of his neck but only briefly because like Caleb he didn’t want to make their friends uncomfortable. “Seriously, Reid? I think I liked you better when you were being quiet.” Reid snorted and just flipped Pogue off.

Tyler shook his head, "No weirder than usual, Caleb." He watched the stilted interactions between Caleb and Pogue and lifted an eyebrow. "If you guys promise to keep it PG-13 we're not gonna give you shit for holding hands or whatever." He sipped the beer that had been passed to him and squeezed Reid's fingers. "But no, why?"

"We're not exactly PG-13 in private," Caleb replied with a short laugh as he looked over at Pogue with a smile, "So, we're still working on it." It was hard to resist showing Pogue how much he liked him when they were in public, but they were working on being appropriate in public. He did reach over to take Pogue's hand in his own. "I've had these dreams and they involve all of you. It's similar to our lives, but in this dream life we're actually descended from a line of witches. We all these powers that are telekinetic in nature, it seems, and sometimes that sort of stuff bleeds over into this world."

Reid was torn between laughing and reaching over to check if Caleb was running some sort of fever. “I thought only chicks could be witches?” Pogue was definitely not shy and he was all about a good healthy amount of PDA. It was one of his ways of reassuring himself that he was still wanted and not just a means to pass the time. He might have gotten away from his folks young but not young enough that they hadn’t totally fucked with his idea of what he was or wasn’t worthy of. He linked his fingers with Caleb’s and just gave Reid a look because really Reid?.

Tyler snorted, mumbling into the bottle, "I'm pretty sure they're called warlocks or something, technically. Male witches."

Okay, so they weren't going to take this very seriously. He rolled his eyes before shooting a look at Pogue. He closed his eyes briefly before opening them back up. His eyes had turned completely black with the use of his powers and he used his powers to grab both of their beers out of their hands and fly them through the air to his hands.

Reid nudged Tyler in the side when he said what he did and accompanied it with a grin though the moment Caleb closed his eyes he could almost feel the tired energy radiating off his friend and had his mouth half opened to say something when suddenly there was a black gaze and then an inexplicable display of what could only be described as Jedi mind powers. "What the fuck," he uttered.

Pogue snorted and shook his head. "He did try to tell you."

Tyler didn't quite know how to react, firstly to the darkness in Caleb's eyes, and then- well, and then the telekinetic theft of the beer that he had lifted to his lips. He scuttered back a little, surprised and startled. Even maybe a little frightened. He looked to Pogue for reassurance, and since Pogue wasn't freaking out, he thought maybe it would be okay? "There's a bit of a fucking difference," he muttered, rubbing his hand over his face. "Between- between dreaming about being a witch and being Jean Grey, dude."

Caleb watched their reactions and then blinked his eyes to return them to normal. He still held onto the beers as he looked over the faces of his friends. "I guess our witchy powers are more on the Jean Grey side, but I wanted to show you guys what may happen in the future." "I have a book that details everything we know about this stuff. In the Dreams it drains your life force, but I'm not sure if it does that here yet or not," Caleb explained before leaning over to give them back their beers.

Pogue wasn’t freaking out because he’d already had his freakout and had come out the other side because this was Caleb. He did offer Tyler a reassuring smile as his grip on Caleb’s hand tightened, to steady him. It wasn’t easy explaining shit like that.

Reid blinked a couple times as the cogs in his brain turned. “So, we’re all going to get awesome powers but at the cost of our life force, potentially?” He took the beer as it was offered and tipped it to his mouth. “You only live once, right?”

"He said what 'may' happen," Tyler pointed out. "There's no guarantee that we'll get the same- uh, powers, right?" He rubbed the back of his neck and leaned forward to collect his own beer, rubbing his thumb along the neck as he returned to his position. "Caleb, this is really weird, dude."

"No guarantee, but it's highly likely to happen. We all have this similar telekinetic type power. They manifest on our 13th birthday and then we 'ascend' on our 18th birthday, which means we come into our full powers. Listen, my dad in the dreams used these powers without discretion and now that he's 44 he looks like he's about 90 and on life support. It's not all it's cracked up to be," Caleb definitely saw himself becoming just like he was in the dreams when it came to trying to police his friends about using the powers. He just wanted to make sure they wouldn't die from overuse in this world.

“Well, that sounds like a barrel of laughs,” Pogue muttered before he took a slow pull from his bottle. Cosmic powers at a really shitty cost.

“I mean if that’s what happens then why didn’t your dad stop using them?” Reid was definitely looking forward to dreaming sooner rather than layers especially if it meant cool powers. “Maybe he liked using them?”

"Apparently they are super addictive once you start using them. I'm sure there was some fun drunk-with-power elements going on as well," Caleb didn't know all the details yet, it was still early in the dreams and the thing with his dad happened when he was younger, "I mean, look at how Reid reacted already. Awesome powers, worth it to lose your life force."

Reid’s expression immediately darkened at what Caleb was inferring or rather blatantly saying. “Fuck you, Caleb.”

Pogue pressed his lips together the moment Caleb said what he did as he and Reid had a similar hair trigger temper, but Reid’s was a lot more explosive and reactionary than his. He saw this coming before the fuck you left Reid’s lips. “Dude, he didn’t mean it how it soun-“

“Don’t,” Reid bit out in Pogue’s direction. “He said it so he meant it.”

Tyler reached out and put his hand on Reid's shoulder, the intention to try and calm him at least a little but he could almost feel the way Reid's ire was rising. "Hey- that's not cool," he said, looking up at Caleb with a frown and then at Reid. "Let it go, man. Caleb's not got all the facts yet anyway, right, Caleb?"

Caleb really should have known how Reid would react, but he was trying to make a point. It didn't help that they were coming after his father and he couldn't quite explain it all to his friends right now. "I'm sorry, Reid. There's just so much to figure out with this stuff and I'm still not quite sure how to explain it. I just don't want us to end up like my dad in this world. There's a magic guild here apparently and I'm hoping maybe someone might have an answer to help us figure it out."

“Whatever,” Reid grumbled sourly as he sunk back into himself and tossed what remained of his beer down the back of his throat though he did spare Tyler a grateful look. Pogue rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. “Forewarned is forearmed, right?”

Tyler shrugged, "No matter what happens I'm sure we'll work it out," he offered, bumping Reid's shoulder with his own before he returned his attention to Caleb. "So, you gonna show us what else you can do?"

Caleb couldn't help but laugh a little at Tyler's comment about wanting to be shown what else he could do. He had given his peace, explained the possible consequences, and now it was time for them to see what happened. At least he didn't have to do it alone and the others wouldn't be as confused as he was when they first started, and he had been alone in it. "Sure, man," why not play with the powers a little bit? Hopefully it wouldn't hurt anything, Caleb thought as he finished up his beer and then got ready to show a few things to his friends.