magician's apprentice | been a hell of a ride but I'm thinking it's time to grow

[onebehind]

Dylan knew, coming out of the hospital if not going in, that getting sober wasn't going to be easy. He knew he'd have bad days and good days and days in between, and every therapist he's seen since then, every meeting he's been to has only reaffirmed that. They'd also armed him with a bag of tricks to deal with everything and everything in between, but -- well, today is one of the bad ones and nothing is helping. He's been pacing the house like a madman for the better part of the day, trying to find something to hold his attention long enough that he can stop thinking about running down to the nearest liquor store. He needs to get out of his skin. He's just shy of calling his sponsor. He needs to get out of the house.

He needs to get out of the house.

Stopping midway through moving a pile of books from one side of the living room to the other, he latches onto that idea and turns it over in his head. He needs to get out of the house.

He's moving again a second later, though this time, it's with a purpose, a clarity he hasn't felt like he's had in hours, days, weeks. He goes to Jack's room, tapping lightly on the door, and then after a beat and once he's been invited in, sticks his head in. Flashing him a smile that's equal parts reassuring and strained (he's fine, they're fine, this is nothing bad, he's just a little jittery, don't mind him), he tells him, "Hey. Pack your shit."

He has an idea. It'll be good for both of them.

Comments

[onebehind]

"People'd probably pay for it," he says by way of agreement. A vague gesture to his missing stomach follows. "But I really don't wanna have to explain all this to Mike, so how 'bout you put me back together?"

[the_death_card]

Jack laughs again - but does pull the box back into position. He pulls the blades out, pausing to lean them carefully against the wall before he undoes the latches and steps back. "Ta da," he says, his grin even wider now, and he rocks up onto his toes again, barely resisting the urge to bounce.

[onebehind]

Dylan pushes out of the box, once Jack has stepped away, and gestures to it with a flourish, for the benefit of a nonexistent audience. A bow follow, and when he straightens again, he smiles at Jack. "Remind me, next time, to bring a pogo stick."

Not that he really blames him for being exicted.

[the_death_card]

Jack settles back onto his heels sheepishly, reaching up to rub at the back of his neck. "Sorry, it's just... super cool?"

He knows Dylan's just giving him a hard time to tease him, but he recognizes he's maybe being a little overexcited about the whole thing.

But come on. It's literally history and literally magic.

[onebehind]

He nudges his shoulder lightly, almost apologetically, somehow. He was just teasing; he doesn't blame Jack for being excited. If anything, to be honest, it makes him feel better about his decision to bring him out here in the first place.

"And here I was, worried that you were gonna be bored," he tells him, that in mind.

[the_death_card]

Jack nudges him back with a smile, that sheepish edge fading again, warmth filtering through the connection.

"Nah, man, this is awesome. I mean, out there's cool enough, and then all this on top of it?" He gestures vaguely, meaning to indicate the warehouse itself.

[onebehind]

"Yeah, well." He's glad Jack's into it, really. He makes that much clear, through the connection, too, before he lets it go, the feeling ebbing slowly, like the tide going out to sea.

"Anyway, uh ... " he continues after a beat, looking for the next logical step in the conversation. He's really not sure what that is, though.

[the_death_card]

Jack hums acknowledgement of that as the mood changes, and he raises his eyes to take in more of the warehouse. "Uh... so... there anything else in here? Or's it all just storage or whatever?"

Not that he'll be disappointed if it is just a storage space, but he's trying to get them moving again, if Dylan needs to show him anything else in the warehouse or if they need to go anywhere else to look at something.

[onebehind]

"I got a workbench?" Dylan supplies, gesturing towards the far wall opposite the door. There is, in fact, a workbench sitting there, taking up most of it, covered in a mess of papers and models made from Legos. None of them are particularly sensitive, though -- he's not that far along in planning his revenge.

"And there's, like, a not-quite bedroom, in the back."

[the_death_card]

Jack drifts toward the bench in question, grinning at the sight of the Legos. He doesn't dare to pick any of them up, though, still wary of messing something up and making Dylan angry - just because he's starting to relax doesn't mean there aren't still some old habits in there that he's yet to shake.

"Oh, yeah," he returns, glancing toward where he assumes Dylan means. "I guess that makes more sense than having to, like... set up an air mattress or a crappy cot or something."

[onebehind]

" ... is this a bad time to tell you it is a crappy cot?" Dylan asks after a long, purposeful pause. As far as he's aware, it actually is, which is why he said not-quite bedroom. It's a place to sleep, sure, but there's no bed.

[the_death_card]

Jack blinks at him - and then laughs. "It's better than the floor," he declares after a moment.

He shouldn't really be surprised to know it's just a cot, considering the rest of the space - and considering he made his previous comment based on the idea that Dylan came out to work sometimes and just ended up being here later than he meant to.

"You ever go camping or whatever? Tents and all that crap?" That's kind of a random question, but it's related to the crappy cot situation.

[onebehind]

He shakes his head.

"We spent the night on the beach, in the bed of a buddy's pickup truck, once, but." There had been two pickups, if you want to get technical, but that's a matter of semantics. The point he's making is that's probably the closest to camping as he's ever been, and that was years ago, decades. It also probably wasn't strictly legal, but again, semantics.

"That something you're interested in doing?"

[the_death_card]

"Maybe?" Jack decides after a moment. "I've never done it anyway."

There's a lot he hasn't done, really, and he's not even sure if it's something he would end up doing. If the opportunity came up, he wouldn't say no, though.

[onebehind]

Dylan's quiet for a moment, thoughtful, before popping one shoulder in a shrug.

"We can try it sometime, see what with think." It's not like they can't be nearly anywhere in the blink of an eye. And by that same logic, "If we decide we hate it, we can pack up and go back home, maybe set up the tent in the living room or something, instead."

[the_death_card]

Jack laughs. "Yeah, that works."

Considering they're both from New York, he has a feeling it might not go well, but he's also not against giving it a try.

There's a lot he feels like he needs to catch up on that families usually do now that he has a family - and that thought brings with it a swirl of warmth.

[onebehind]

Dylan offers it back to him, along with a fond smile. When the latter, at least, dims a little, he glances away, off towards the door to the bedroom he mentioned. "Backing up, though. You wanna set your crap down and check out my shitty cot?"

And try and figure out who's sleeping where. Maybe he should have thought to bring an air mattress.

[the_death_card]

Jack snorts. "That sounds like a bad line," he returns - but he also nods, adjusting his backpack on his shoulders and turning toward the other door, expecting Dylan to lead the way.

[onebehind]

"Yeah, I'm not even gonna touch that one," Dylan decides after a beat.

Shaking his head, he does, in fact, turn to lead the way through the door, which dumps out into a narrow hallway with two other doorways behind it. At one point, before him, before his father, when this place was still a construction site for the park outside, this might have been where the offices were or were planned to be.

Nodding towards the door on one side of the hallway, Dylan lets Jack peek into it. There's a small bathroom behind, with a pair of sinks and urinals to one side of a boxed in toilet stall, and a box of a shower on the other. Once Jack's seen that, Dylan indicates the other door, and --

-- well, it should be a room, no bigger than for a desk and a couple of chairs, with a cot and a nightstand wedged in, instead. It should be, but while the room is no bigger than Dylan remembers, something closer to a bed has been shoved in here against one wall, a slightly bigger end table beside it, now. It'll still be tight quarters in here, with the two of them, but at least, like this, no one will have to sleep on the floor.

That in my, Dylan blinks. "Okay, uh."

[the_death_card]

Jack just snickers at Dylan's response, expression turning curious again as Dylan leads the way farther into the warehouse. He takes quick stock of the bathroom and then leans around Dylan to peer into the other room when he stops.

"Yeah, that's not a crappy cot," he points out like Dylan hasn't already noticed that.

[onebehind]

"It was the last time I was here," he promises, making a face at him. A moment of pause follows, and then at length, he ventures, "I guess me and my old man have spent enough time here for shit to kind of react to us."

It's not the first time he's seen a place change based on whoever happened to be in it. It's just the first time it's happened to him, in a place that belonged to him.

[the_death_card]

Jack moves around him into the room, setting his bag down once he's farther into the room and turning to look back at Dylan. "What do you mean?"

Before Dylan can respond to that, though, his eyes go a little wide. "Wait, you mean like your hoodie or whatever?"

[onebehind]

"A little less deliberate?" he answers, making a so-so gesture. "The hoodie, I passed along to someone who took the time and energy to into purposefully making it do what it does. This is ... me and dad have done enough unrelated real magic here that it's kind of seeped into the building."

Less deliberate, like he said, and much longer in the making, since it wasn't a focused effort.

[the_death_card]

Jack takes in the room again, still slightly awestruck. "That's fucking awesome," he says again. He pauses, then, though it's clear he's still thinking. "Like the carousel, though. Why everything's..." He waves a hand vaguely. "Warmer? There."

He doesn't how to put it into words, but they've basically already had that conversation - how the carousel has always felt Safe when very few places in the city did.

[onebehind]

Dylan nods at once. He gets what Jack's talking about, and more to the point, he's absolutely right. "Like the carousel, yeah. I feel like this probably took longer to get to that point, since it was only me and Dad, and not, like, half the Eye, but."