fgdgdsfgfd (poindexter) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-04-26 20:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: derek nurse, ₴ inactive: william poindexter |
The post opening night high was real. Nursey was exhausted and his voice was a little rough around the edges from singing and laughing and shouting at his friends after the show. He’d drink some tea when they got home and probably ask Dex to read him something to fall asleep to so he wouldn’t feel the itch to talk, but for now, they were riding the high.
He threaded his fingers through Dex’s and pulled him down the street. They’d decided to walk; it was a nice night and it made him feel a little like he was back in Manhattan. Well, besides the shady used car lot they were currently walking by.
“Okay, so that place with the killer elotes is down that way,” he gestured with his free hand, “and the one with the burgers you get all heart eyes about is that way.” He nodded the opposite way with a cat that got the canary smile. “Or we can just hit up the arcade and I can kick your ass at table hockey. What do you think?
“You’re the one we’re celebrating here, where do you wanna go?” Dex grinned. Musicals weren’t something he’d ever actually been into in the sense that he didn’t know shit about them, but he’d actually thoroughly enjoyed his time watching Nursey act and sing and perform. Maybe that was at least partially because of the fact that it was Nursey and he was incredibly proud of him, but he had genuinely found himself humming along to some parts and he definitely had Popular in his head, something he wouldn’t admit to for fear of offending him.
Honestly, though, Dex had never really experienced the kind of pride he had right now over something… not-hockey related, which he realised was pretty damn sad in a pathetic way. He was incredibly proud of Nurse, though, enough that he pressed a kiss to his cheek when he paused to explain the directions. “Arcade would be bad, I think. You’d have to shout for me to hear you and I don’t actually wanna be the reason you fuck up your voice,” he smirked.
“You make a really good point,” Nursey said, clearly talking about the kiss to his face just as much as the words. “We’re doing the Boardwalk on Sunday for a cast party anyway.” He lifted their clasped hands to his heart and hummed thoughtfully, looking both directions he’d indicated. Before he could settle on a decision, movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention. He glanced towards the car lot.
It was closed for the night and the only movement was one of two of those wacky tube men. Nursey didn’t think anything of it at first until he turned towards burgers and realized it had only been one of the tube men moving in the breeze. He snapped a glance back at the lot and startled as he realized the tube man that hadn’t been moving was now ten feet closer.
“Uhhhhh….Billiam,” he whispered, using the nickname to try and keep things light even though his anxiety had just spiked to obscene levels. “I think maybe…we’re being watched.”
“Being watched? By what?” Dex frowned slightly, having pulled his phone out as Nursey manipulated his other hand to check what kind of options they had in walking distance to them. “The killer elotes place is still open but they’ve closed tonight for some reason? We might wanna go somewhere else,” he hummed, scrolling idly.
“There’s another place nearby that does curry? It has really good ratings. Burgers might be better though, considering it’s like- closer. We can get elotes tomorrow if you still want them-” Nursey’s hiss caught him off guard and he frowned slightly at the tone of his voice, glancing around and attempting to be covert about it when he mentioned they were being watched. When things weren’t trying to attack them, Vallo was… relatively safe, as far as places went. They probably didn’t have a ton to worry about from regular people being tall hockey players but if something was happening, Dex had more than learned his lesson after both he and Bitty now had nearly been taken out by shit attacking them.
“...I don’t see anything?” he frowned. There were two of those creepy tube men advertising some kind of car sales place but he didn’t actually see any people. “Where? Derek, what’s up?”
Nursey was trying to keep up with what Dex was saying but there was the strangest tension in his spine. Eventually, he gave up staring down the wacky tube that seemed to have traveled closer to them and he tightened his grip on his boyfriend, tugging him down the sidewalk.
“I appreciate how hard you’re thinking with your stomach and you’re probably just going to think I’m crazy but I swear one of those tube guys moved back there. Like across the parking lot moved.” He stopped rushing along as they got to an intersection, ready to wait out the light, when something plastic and flimsy smacked the back of his head.
“Shit, babe, am I hallucinating??” he whispered frantically, too afraid to turn around.
Dex was about to open his mouth to inform his boyfriend that maybe he just hadn’t slept enough in the run up to the musical and everything that it entailed when he felt it too, stiffening as something suspiciously plastic-y and tarp-y brushed against the back of his neck, sending shivers up his spine. This had to be one of the dumbest situations Vallo had put them in, but Dex was similarly terrified.
“I don’t think you are,” he murmured, not daring to move to even look at Nursey. “What if- on three, we start running?” he was starting to wonder if there was some kind of merit to the idea of just having a tool belt on permanently. Maybe with scissors too, if he happened to feel like taking a pair of shears to a giant plastic tube man. “One…?”
“Wait, wait!” Nursey clutched Dex’s forearm, still tense but also feeling like a laugh wanted to burst out of him at any second. Why was this place so ridiculous sometimes? “What if it’s like those angels from Doctor Who where you have to look at them?” He’d never actually watched the show, but he was reasonably certain that was a thing. With statues. Or whatever.
Determined to be the cool one in a crisis for a change, Nursey slowly turned to look up at the wacky tube man standing over them. There was a long tense silence, green-grey eyes locked on all that billowing red plastic, then smack. The “arm” of the “creature” slapped him in the face.
“Do you ever just feel punked by life, Poindexter?” Nursey definitely sounded like he was laughing now.
Dex definitely didn’t feel like not running was a good option but still, he turned and stared up at the thing as well, his eyes slightly wide as he fixed his gaze on it. “I mean, right now? This has to be the worst way to die. Or, like- the worst thing you’d get on a gravestone,” death by weird tube man thing.
He still took a slight step back, tugging Nursey with him as he went. “So- what do we do?” he didn’t have a lighter with him although he kind of wished he did - then again, he also didn’t want to find out if this was some kind of mimic situation and the thing was actually alive under whatever the tube man was made out of. He still felt that flight or fight hint to run and he couldn’t look at Nursey to see if he was laughing but he definitely sounded like he was heading that way, enough that Dex felt himself caught somewhere between a manic grim and a terrified grimace.
“I’m going to be having nightmares about car salesmen now, aren’t I?”
“Why are you asking me--what we do?” Nursey’s words were temporarily halted by another harmless smack of plastic tarp. He grabbed Dex by the forearm and dragged him back two steps. The tube man shuffled forward quickly to follow and swiped at Dex. This time the plastic stayed resting on Dex’s head so Nursey reached up and swatted it away.
“Okay this is the dumbest thing ever so maybe we do run. And uhh….tell someone there’s a sentient tube man? God, I kind of hate leaving this here. What if it gets smarter?” Nursey’s anxiety started rolling through ways a plastic tarp could be used to hurt or smother someone and his grip on his boyfriend tightened. “Do you still have your fancy swiss army knife, Will?”
"Um- yeah, I always have it with me," it had been a gift from his granddad and apparently now it was going to be used to attack a sentient tube man. "I feel like it's toying with us. Like- can it kill us or not?" He kept hold of Nursey's hand and went in his pocket for the knife, frowning up at the tube man.
"I really hope this thing isn't- like, flesh underneath," he had a feeling that if it was some incredibly misguided prank from the Haus they would have said by now, especially with Dex holding a knife in one hand with a determined but reluctant frown on his face. The thing took another few weird shuffles forward and its creepy hand batted Nursey's head and despite some of the urgency from the situation wearing off, he had a point about just leaving it here - if it didn't follow them home and appear at their window in the morning. He lifted up his hand to stab at it, feeling the knife pierce the fabric - when he looked up, the dumb, happy face on the thing had changed into a child's approximation of an angry snarl. "Uh. Derek?"
Nursey had been mentally crossing his fingers that a little cut would deflate the monster and they could leave with a guiltless conscience. But looking up at the creepy face while it changed was alarming to say the least. He jerked back two steps, pulling Dex with him.
“Okay okay okay, chill. Chill.” He sounded anything but chill but his facial expression was forced casual. “Let’s just bounce. We’ll find someone magic to check this out.” Still tugging, he took another few hurried steps and watched over his shoulder as the tube man lurched forward, angry face locked in place. It would’ve been so much more terrifying if the thing hadn’t hopped two feet and then fallen flat on the ground, a flail of its long arms slapping feebly at Dex and Nursey’s ankles as it landed.
The laugh that had threatened earlier came back sharp and relieved, and Nursey hooked an arm around Dex’s neck to kiss his face. “I think you broke it, babe. William Poindexter, defeater of possessed tube men.”
Dex was still staring at the tube man that had lunged at them as Nursey kissed him, his mouth opening and closing in disbelief as it sort of flopped feebly on the ground, unable to get itself back on to the weighted base. For now, at least. He took a hesitant step forward and sort of nudged it with his foot and jumped back when it flapped at his ankle, grabbing it but only really managing to slap at it.
Honestly, he wasn’t even sure if it had been a threat but he was definitely having nightmares about tube men tonight. “Fucking hell,” he breathed, finally managing to laugh himself as he put the knife away, shoving it back into his pocket. “You’re never allowed to question why I carry a swiss army knife again,” Dex felt a little like they’d just ran a marathon or something, looking at the tube man. After some hesitation he grabbed its arms and tied them in a knot behind it. “Do you want to get ice cream or something instead? Like- somewhere far away from here, preferably?”
“Uh yeah, far away from here,” Nursey agreed. “And I swear on both my moms that I will only give you a hard time about the swiss army knife when you use the little tiny pliers. Final offer, Billiam.” He didn’t wait for an answer, only for Dex to finish tying up the tube man’s arms, and then he pulled Dex backwards by the back of his shirt.
He was a poet, a lover, and a general beast on the ice, but weird spooky shit was out of his wheelhouse. He was already pulling out his phone to call one of the defense team people he knew before he’d even made it two steps away.
“I’ll buy dinner. Since you’re officially my hero.”