InsaneJournal

Who: Reid Garwin & Caleb Danvers
What: Reid's powers turn up unexpectedly and more aggressively than expected
When: 4th Sept
Where: Reid & Tyler's shared apartment & the beach
Rating/Warnings: PG | Mostly swearing
Status: Log | Complete

Reid had awoken in the middle of a night to what could only be described as an explosive display of power that literally shook every fixture and fitting as well as the foundation of the apartment itself.

Thankfully Tyler was out so he hadn't woken him up with the sudden manifestation of the power that Caleb had been talking about from the dreams but what he'd failed to mention was just how intense it would be the first time it came through into the real world.

He'd broken a window, turned his bed upside down, and also wrought devastation on some of his personal belongings along with hurting himself in the process. Freaked out by it he'd hurriedly got dressed and left the apartment behind, making for the beach, for the most space he could find and just collapsed down onto the sand.

His phone was still intact so he sent a quick text message to Caleb, actually reaching out to the other Son of Ipswich for help.

Caleb was surprised to hear his phone go off in the middle of the night. He fumbled around for it with his eyes still closed before his hand grasped it and pulled it over as he squinted at the screen. It took him a couple tries for the message to actually register with him, equal parts sleep and surprise, and he sent a reply back to Reid that he would be there as soon has he could. He moved out of bed, doing his best to not wake Pogue up, as he padded around the room to find sweatpants and a hoodie to throw on.

He grabbed his keys and made his way over to the beach that Reid had indicated in his text message. It wasn't hard to find his friend sitting out there since the place was completely empty at this hour. He got out of the car, manually locking it because the noise would seem too loud right now, and made his way over to Reid. "Hey..." he spoke softly, his voice still rough from sleep, and gave his friend a once over when he finally got to him.

Reid was sporting a bloody nose and a cut to his right eyebrow along with a distinctly swallowed bottom lip from where he'd basically slammed into a wall. "Hey," he muttered as he glanced up at Caleb. "Thanks for coming."

He exhaled a shaky breath and turned his gaze back to the ocean.

"So, power manifestation, that was a trip."

Caleb winced when he caught sight of Reid's face in the light. He would have chalked it up to some kind of brawl at a bar until he heard him say that it was his power manifestation. He held back a comment about how he looked like shit when he realized that the issue was more than just that.

"Do you want me to go grab some napkins from my car and help you clean up?" Caleb asked, ready to go run back for the stash of napkins he kept in his glove box, "And man, yours seem to have hit a lot harder than mine. I broke a few things, but think the most I got was a bruise." It was a little concerning to him how the powers were manifesting in different degrees of intensity. Caleb's hadn't been as bad as Reid's looked, but he also didn't have anyone to reach out to during that time.

"That bad, huh?" Reid asked humourlessly before he just ran the back of his sleeve over the bottom of his nose. "But, uh, yeah, might be an idea."

If his powers had hit, did that mean Pogue's had already turned up? If they were in fact manifesting in the order of age it would make sense though he couldn't remember seeing Pogue share that if they had.

"Does this mean I beat Pogue to power manifestation?"

"I mean....I think you've looked worse," Caleb pointed out with a half grin. Reid had been in a few fights before and this wasn't the worst he's looked after one. Caleb really needed to make friends with more magic users so he could find someone to heal him, "Okay."

"Give me a second to grab you some napkins and then I'll answer that," he assured Reid as he ran off to his car and came back with a stack of napkins and his water bottle for his friend to help clean the blood, "And yeah, as far as I know it hasn't hit Pogue yet." The only way Caleb wouldn't know is if he wasn't there or if Pogue decided to be secretive about the whole thing, but that wasn't how Pogue was.

"Now, let's save your pretty face," another half grin was given as he knelt down in front of Reid and dabbed some water on a napkin before reaching to Reid's face to clean it up.

Reid picked restlessly at the sand beneath him as he waited for Caleb to return and when he did he was surprisingly quiet as the other man began to clean up his face. "Pretty, huh?" He asked, all teeth and attitude. "Don't let Pogue hear you say that." He was kidding because he knew better but it beat sitting there feeling like a total idiot over how his powers had manifested.

He sniffed and as he did he tasted blood which made him pull a slight face.

Caleb resisted giving Reid an eyeroll and instead just shook his head in exasperation, "You know you're attractive, so don't go fishing for compliments, but I get it when your face looks this busted up." He didn't even bother to comment on the Pogue comment because they both knew Pogue wouldn't be that upset about it.

He finished cleaning up and sat back to make sure he didn't miss anything before handing Reid a napkin for his nose, "Might want to lean forward and drain all that blood out of there, but you look back to normal. How are you feeling emotionally?"

"Worth a shot," Reid returned with a roll of his eyes before he took a hold of the napkin and for once in his life did as he was told without arguing, he placed the napkin against his nose and leaned forward as to let that blood come right out of there.

His shoulders lifted into a shrug. "Dunno, ask me again in the morning?"

"You're an idiot sometimes," Caleb commented with an evident playful tone in his voice and a lift of his mouth. He actually really did enjoy being around Reid when they weren't bickering and this was one of those few moments. It meant a lot that he had been Reid's first call when something like this happened.

"You know I will. It sucks, but I don't think ascension will be like this was. I just wish there was a better way to figure this out than being stuck waiting for dreams to explain what is going on."

Reid gave Caleb a mock glower from beneath his lashes before he just exerted a small amount of pressure on his nose to try and stem the bleeding because jesus fuck that was a lot of blood. They didn't always see eye to eye him and Caleb but he valued the other man's friendship and sure he could be a real stick in the mud but honestly sometimes that was what Reid needed more than anything else.

"Hope not," he grumbled. "My nose is too pretty to get broken."

That expression earned a laugh from Caleb. Leave it to Reid to try and express his disdain while he was bleeing profusely from his nose. And someone had to be the voice of reason in their friendship circle, but Caleb at least knew that he was more fun than the dream version of himself. He handed over a few more napkins from his stack to Reid.

"You would need a cool story to explain it at least. Do you want an update on what's going on in the dreams or want to stay in the dark? I'm never quite sure what to tell you guys."

Reid took the newly offered napkins gratefully and proceeded to use them to catch what blood there was left in his nose to go every which way.

"I wanna know everything you know." And he did, Reid always wanted to know everything because he hated being in the dark and had been that way ever since he was a kid.

Caleb settled back a little in the sand as he stretched his legs in front of him. What was the point of supernatural magic powers when you couldn't even heal your friend's nose? He was really annoyed about that, "So, we've all had our family dreams and getting our powers. It's a bit mundane until right before I am due to turn 18. We go to a bonfire before classes start back up and we meet this girl, Sarah, who we both have the hots for and this new guy named Chase. The cops show and we run off, using our powers to make our car fly over the cops, and get out of there."

There was a lot he couldn't speak to which was what everyone else was up to in their parts of the dreams, "Then someone sends a darkling to me in my car while I'm driving. I manage to break apart my car as I crash into a semi and then reform it. Then I end up finding Sarah at the drug store and we go and run errands before going to meet everyone at Nicky's. That's about all I've got so far, but some dark stuff is definitely going on."

"What the fuck is a darkling?" Reid queried as he glanced up to look at Caleb. "And is Sarah hot?" Important question, definitely one that Reid was interested in the answer to especially if both he and Caleb had the hots for her in the dream. He did grin at the mention of them running away from the cops and using powers to basically fly and freak them out. It sounded fun, a lot of fun in fact.

He sniffed a little, regarded the napkins, and was pleased when it seemed that the bleeding was finally slowing.

"You think it's gonna get darker?"

"It's like this weird dark spirit. Looks almost skeletal and is basically a message to say "I'm coming after you," at least that is what Caleb had gathered. Tyler currently had their Book of Damnation so he hadn't had a chance to search in there to see if there was any information it, "And yeah. Sarah is hot. I got sent a photo of her if you want it." He was never going to admit that Sarah wasn't attractive, but he had a much more attractive boyfriend in real life, so she didn't stand a chance of his affections.

"I think so," he answered, turning to look out at the dark sea and sighed, "Someone is targeting us, but I'm not sure why it's happening. They're dabbling in dark magic though to send a message." He wasn't quite sure if he wanted to address the fact that dream Caleb was thinking it was probably Reid, but Reid would get to that part soon enough.

"Sounds like something out of a horror movie." But then he'd never thought magic was possible either so why not a creature from the movies? Anything seemed possible after all. At the offer of having the photo he shook his head. "Thanks, but I'm not that creepy." His lips tugged into a self deprecating smirk before the expression was blinked away and Reid was running the back of his hand across the bottom of his nose. Thankfully no more blood. The cut on his lip however? Stinging like a bitch.

He watched the way Caleb sighed and frowned.

"Least it's only in the dreams, right?"

"Agreed, it's written like a weird supernatural horror movie. Guys with magic powers, but someone is out there with dark magic trying to come after them," Caleb knew his dreams were weird and it sounded like everyone had over-dramatic ones, but their seemed like more than usual, "And good to know. It's currently tucked away in a random drawer because Pogue hates it." He couldn't help but laugh a little the poor girl who probably didn't exist in this world being shoved out of mind.

"Thankfully. Although some people seem to have some stuff bleed over into this world, but I'm hoping we never run into this person coming after us," Caleb glanced over at Reid and gave him a small smile, "You stopped bleeding."

"Ha!" Reid barked out before he let loose with a chuckle. "Not surprised Pogue hates the picture of the girl you have the hots for in the dreams. Not at all."

He nodded. "Yeah, thank fuck. How bad does my lip look?" Reid lifted his chin so Caleb could get a better look.

"I know, so surprising," Caleb couldn't help but continue to laugh. At least Reid understood how hilarious the situation was, "Wait until he meets her in his dreams and can complain about her"

"It's split, but that'll heal up in a couple days. I mean you just need to come up with a good story about how you saved a small child from a brute or something," Caleb commented with a chuckle as he leaned in to inspect, "Also, there's more magic users on the network. I bet if you asked someone would help you heal it up."

Reid snorted. “Never hear the end of it.”

He hadn’t thought about reaching out on the network and seeing if somebody could help. “Good shout. I’ll see if anybody can help me out.”

"Yeah, I think someone will be able to do it. I mean you'll be fine if you don't heal it, but still," Caleb leaned back and looked over at his friend. It wasn't often that the two of them just hung out without a lot of bickering, so he was going to savor the moment, "Do you want to hang out here for a while or want me to drive you back to your place?" They weren't far from home, but sometimes a drive was nicer than walking.

"My place is a mess," Reid shared with a shake of his head. "Pretty sure the landlord is going to try and gut me when he sees the state of the window and the wall." He pushed out a breath and with a dramatic groan he flopped back into the sand and buried his hands into his hair. "Maybe we can stay here a while?"

"Good thing I'm looking for a place for us to all move into then," Caleb gave him a small smile. Landlords sucked especially when you accidentally ruined parts of the apartment, but that wouldn't be an issue once they all moved out. This was just encouraging him to dedicate a bit more time to it and find a place, "But sure, we can stay here as long as you need."

Reid pulled himself back up off the sand and tipped his head to regard Caleb through a few errant strands of blonde hair. "Thanks, Caleb." And for that brief moment he looked the age that he was and definitely seemed more vulnerable than he was on any normal day as Reid was all guise and guile. Bluster also came to mind.

That look was what broke Caleb's heart just a little bit and he reached out to wrap an arm around his friend and pull him close. No matter how they acted towards each other Caleb knew they both cared about each other deeply and Caleb would never let anything change that. So for now they would sit and watch the waves while hoping things would get back to their new normal.