It probably wasn’t healthy to follow along with one’s girlfriend being stuck in a mansion full of cannibals in murderers.
And yet, there Gansey was, with a fresh notebook open, taking notes on who was who. There weren’t a lot of people still alive. Six, seven, at most? Blue was one of them, so was Sydney. It was late into the night now, the house was fairly quiet, and he had Chorizo settled on his lap, so Gansey wasn’t planning on going anywhere anytime soon.
He jotted down a few more notes but Blue’s last action had him looking up and his eyes became fixated on the TV as Ronan walked in. “You walked in just in time for my Jane to uh-- control the meat grinder. Apparently.”
Insomnia paid off sometimes. Ronan wasn't sleepy. Tired, yes, but not sleepy. He'd followed Gansey closely most of the day and as soon as they'd been told there was a tv feed to watch, he'd burrowed into the living room with him. This wasn't like the hallmark shit though. He'd much rather have watched Blue and Syd as background characters in somebody else's sappy love story than watch them in Cannibal House. But they hadn't gotten a fucking choice in the matter.
He slid over the top of the couch with several bags of snacks and a six pack of soda, his eyes snapping to the screen at Gansey's words. The meat grinder roared and Blue turned it off and on again several times like a cartoon horror movie.
"Jesus wept," Ronan grunted, darkly amused inspite of everything. They'd seen the people who'd "died" were chatting in a void space so the worry for his friends was less intense than it had been in the morning. "I hope that wasn't one of ours. Did you try switching the channel to check?"
“I shouldn’t find this funny,” And Gansey didn’t necessarily find it funny so much as he just-- couldn’t stop himself from laughing at the absurdity of it all. “I don’t think it was.” It didn’t stop Blue from clearly being horrified by the meat grinder, and Gansey couldn’t blame her, but he also didn’t want to take the focus off of her.
That was selfish, however, since there were a few friends they were keeping their eyes on. Sydney had been with Blue for a good portion of the time so far, at least, and he knew it wasn’t her that went down the grinder. Gansey flipped through a few views, it was quieter now than it had been the last hour. “Looks like most everyone left is hiding in the gardens. Too bad it wasn’t the head asshole she ground up.”
"This whole thing is so insane." Ronan dropped the chip bag in his hand down by their feet, knowing he probably wouldn't have the stomach for it now anyway. The idea of anyone going through a meatgrinder was hard on the stomach. He did unlatch a soda from the six pack for himself, and another that he lobbed at Gansey's chest, careful of the dog in his lap.
"Drink something. When was the last time you did anything but stare at this fucking screen?" He wasn't sure how time was even working in this weird place their friends were stuck in. He just knew the last couple hours had felt like longer. "Give me your notebook and rest your eyes for a few minutes." Whether Gansey would agree or not was up in the air, but Ronan reached out an expectant hand while he took a long drink of his soda anyway.
“But--” Gansey didn’t want to give up the notebook and clutched it a little tighter, which proved difficult to do when he had a soda being thrown at his lap that he was trying to catch from rolling onto the floor. He managed both, though his hold on the notebook was precarious at best, if Ronan started getting grabby.
“I can’t rest my eyes now, we don’t know how much longer this is going to be, what if something happens as soon as I close my eyes?” He’d wondered the same thing when he last took a bathroom break, too, but Gansey knew historically speaking, he could go much longer without any rest. “She might get lucky and that asshole might step over the meat grinder.”
Well, they could’ve hoped, except for the fact that Blue was running away from it as fast as possible now. Not that he could blame her, given she’d just turned a few people into dust.
Ronan rolled his eyes but didn't take the bait. He didn't actually want to stress Gansey out more and smacking that stupid notebook out of his hands would get him the face anyway. The face made his chest hurt in an annoying way. He took another drink of soda and glared at the screen instead.
"Didn't mean close your eyes for like sleep or some shit, Dick. Just meant, look somewhere other than Cannibal TV for five minutes. Look at your adorable weiner for a bit." He grinned sharply and sagged against Gansey's side so he could give Chorizo a few pets for himself. "Huh, buddy, tell him to take a break." Chorizo stood on Gansey's thigh and pressed into Ronan's hand. All the treat bribes were apparently paying off.
“This is cheating,” Gansey grumbled, and then grumbled a little harder when Chorizo fell right into Ronan’s trap and bumped the notebook so he could get closer to the petting. “You’re a cheater.” It wasn’t malicious, though, as Gansey sagged against Ronan’s weight and gave in. He put down the book and replaced it with his own scritches for the dog, relieved, at least, that he was more used to Ronan’s weiner jokes.
“I reserve the right to get back to it if something happens in the next five minutes.” Luckily, at least, the focus seemed to be back on the garden group for now, who were quietly biding their time. He wasn’t normally one to swear, but Gansey let his head fall back against the sofa and groaned. “This is fucked up, Ronan.”
"Beyond fucked up," Ronan agreed. He was surprised Gansey caved, but not at all shocked it came with a stipulation that would get him right back to taking frantic notes of where shit was and who was doing what. Chorizo climbed further on his goofy little legs and licked Ronan's face first, then moved onto his depressed looking owner.
"They're doing okay though." Whether he was trying to convince himself or Gansey was anybody's guess. "They're doing better than okay. Fuck. I'd have gotten shot in seconds and they're running around like little fucking detectives. Some of that's gotta be your influence." He slumped further against Gansey, knocking their heads together gently. "At least with Blue. Pretty sure Syd's criminal background is helping her out here."
Chorizo slumped against Gansey’s chest as soon as he crossed laps, the little nugget of a dog was remarkably perceptive to the moods around him. And gentle to boot. Gansey caught him with his free hand and wrapped it around the dog in a comforting move, a little hug. “She’s remarkable. They’re doing amazingly. Blue’s never been one to lie down and depress herself further when she could find answers, but--”
But, god, this sucked. It wasn’t like the Snowglobe, not really. They eventually had contact there, with this it felt like that void was getting bigger between them. “They don’t have all of the clues yet, so we just have to hold out hope that they’ll find them, and that it will actually break this. Put an end to it, bring them home.” And hopefully before the typical one week timestamp Vallo often put on things.
Ronan dropped his head to the back of the sofa and closed his eyes for a second. There were few things that twisted up his insides quite like Gansey sounding forlorn. Especially when they were pretty fucking helpless to do anything about it. But they were used to not having the answers right away here. They were stronger now. High powered magnets that found their way back to each other.
"If they don't figure it out, we will," Ronan promised. He opened his eyes and reached for a pad of paper and pen on the side table. It had notes from Adam from earlier. They'd run him off to bed to steal a few hours of sleep so he supposed it was only right that he take over in the note taking department. For Blue and Syd, he could do annoying nerd shit. He propped up a knee and pressed the notepad to it to start jotting something down. "Getting the info to them would be the fucking tricky part. I could try reaching out in a dream if they even get a chance to sleep in this house of horrors."
Gansey’s head came up abruptly at that. “You think you could reach out in a dream to either of them?” Without Blue there to amplify him, he hadn’t even considered them as an option. “I’d figured it’d come down to hacking that chat program.” Which meant leaving it to the people who were far more skilled in that sort of thing.
He wrapped an arm around Chorizo, whose little body was pushing right into Gansey’s face. The arm gave him a chance to lean forward to peek over to Ronan’s notes, revived from his thirty seconds of rest. “I’m a little worried about the idea of them even sleeping there at all, but it might be worth a shot. Maybe you could feed off my heart like Adam can do?”
There probably wasn’t an idea out there that Ronan would hate more than the one Gansey suggested.
“I’m not using you like a fucking battery when I have no idea if it would even work, Dick. I don’t have the same link to Cabeswater that you guys have.” It didn’t seem to matter that he’d pulled the forest out of his dreams and that he treated him like family to be protected. He was on a separate wavelength as far as the forest’s emotions were concerned. He wasn’t sure he minded. He had a hard enough time dealing with his own emotions.
“Let’s just…put that shit on the backburner. We’re not desperate yet.” He started sketching the layout of the house as far as they knew it, reaching over after a moment to turn Gansey’s notebook towards him. “What’s above the kitchen again? Hell’s cafeteria?”
“The option is there if we need it,” Gansey pushed, just a little. He wouldn’t push further, because he knew Ronan would dig his heels in and Adam could very easily end up the voice of reason and tie-breaker to this. But his response could go either way.
He could leave it for now and ask again later, when they did get desperate. If they got desperate. “Dining area, yes. Blue’s had to go through there a few times, unfortunately.” They might never eat meat again in this house, after how many times they’d had to watch people walk past the table of human remains. “Next to it is the ballroom, which is where that painting was.” Which had been a bear to get rid of, but seemed important to the overall endgame of this.
Gansey peeked over to watch Ronan sketch. “How much more do you need?”
Ronan grimaced and wrote "Meat Market" in the square reserved for the banquet hall and then "Worst Club" in the ballroom space. He sketched the painting location and pulled back to look at the rest of the map.
"There were a couple rooms on the upper floor that I saw doors for but fuck if I know what's in there. Bedrooms, I guess." He slid the sketch across his knee to rest on Gansey's thigh. "Add whatever I missed. Then maybe we can--" The screen flickered and Ronan's gaze shot towards it. Aleksis was on screen and he was giving an obnoxious speech. God that guy fucking blew. Ronan narrowed his eyes as very tied up Colt came into view. "Fuck. This…doesn't look good."
Gansey took the notepad, but he wasn’t paying attention by that point. His eyes were back to being glued on the TV, expression going stoic and firm as Aleksis appeared. Ugh. The speech made his stomach turn, like all the horrible politicians he’d met at parties wrapped into one disgusting person.
Then the sound of a grinder and Gansey snapped his eyes shut, wincing horribly at the sound. When it was over, he peeked, but against his better judgement, and especially so when the whole thing reset to everyone waking right back up again where they had started.
“Shit.” Gansey flopped back against the couch and gently put Chorizo to the side. “Time to wake up Adam.”