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

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

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.

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"Alright, c'mmon."

Juggling the sketchbook, Dylan manages to extricate himself from his seat with little difficulty. He takes a moment, once he's standing, to debate putting his shoes, which have been sitting in front of the chair he was actually sitting in, back on. Finally, he decides against it, abandons his current sketchbook along with the shoes, and heads for the stage.

From there, he leads them into the backstage area, to a hallway with multiple doors on either side. Dylan pulls one of them open, looking in on a dressing room that's empty save for a dress form with one of Dylan's (Agent Rhodes's) suits on it. Dylan squints at it for a moment, then moves on to another door. When he pulls this one open, it leads to a dressing room that appears to belong to Jack. He lingers on this one a little longer.

Jack follows Dylan backstage, peeking around him to see into the first dressing room. Somehow, its contents are not a surprise, considering how much the Agent Rhodes persona is something like a costume Dylan puts on and takes off every day.

He is a little more surprised by the second room, and he stops, blinking at it. "Oh, that's. My stuff?"

It's not as disconcerting as it maybe could, and he shakes off the surprise easily enough. There's a brief flash where he might wonder whose dream this is, exactly, but it's gone before he can really question it.

There's a chair with one of the jackets he's been favoring lately tossed over its back. The chair is facing a dressing table, a mirror over it, and on the table is a book of cardistry he picked up somewhere, along with a deck of cards.

"Yeah," Dylan says, something vaguely confused creeping into his tone. It's quick enough to fade back into comfortable calm, however. "You need anything outta here?"

Before they continue their search for the sketchbooks.

He doesn't seem to notice that the dressing room mirror isn't actually reflecting anything like it should.

"Uh... considering this is a dream, I think I'm good," he says lightly, stepping back out of the doorway so Dylan can take the lead again. "Kinda not sure whose though," he adds after a moment, a little under his breath.

Dylan blinks, then inhales sharply -- and the edges of reality come into sharper focus as he does. His expression hardens, too, the fuzzy calm he's been projecting falling away in the face of realization. That whetted look remains for a moment as he gets his bearings, and then finally, on a slower breath out, he relaxes.

Mostly.

There's still something discerning behind his eyes as he asks, "Gonna guess you're actually you?"

Jack blinks a few times as everything sharpens, rubbing at his eyes a little as the haze fades. He drops his hand, looking back up at Dylan. "Wait. Is this real?"

"Real" in the sense that Dylan isn't the construct his subconscious gives him sometimes, that is.

Dylan tilts his head to one side -- a so-so gesture. This isn't real in the fact that, yes, it's a dream, but it is real in the sense that Jack means that. He's actually him. And judging by his reaction and where they are, Dylan's not as surprised as he could be that Jack is actually himself.

"You know how in, like, Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal has a mind palace or whatever?" Wrong book, right character. Still.

Jack frowns, raising an eyebrow. "No? I've only seen part of the movie, and it was just the 'put the lotion in the basket' thing."

He pauses a beat before asking, "Have you read it because of the FBI parts?"

It's kind of a random question that could seem sarcastic, but again with his filters being a little broken currently. It's just harder for him not to be a little shit right now.

Dylan squints at him for a moment, and while he rolls his eyes, he still answers honestly. Maybe he's having the same problem as Jack with his filter being broken, despite realizing this is a dream, now.

"Someone said it was a pretty accurate depiction of how the FBI worked, and I wanted to see if they were right or not."

A beat.

"But okay, uh -- " Honestly, he's a little glad that Jack doesn't know what a mind palace is. Even if it's the easiest way to explain, he's always hated the terminology for reasons he can't quite explain. " -- yes, this is a dream, but it's also more than that. I'm guessing it's 'cause I was touching you, when we went back to sleep, but we're in my headspace, right now."

The fact that he was touching him and how wide he had to throw the floodgates of the connection, to act as a translator for Jack.

Jack shrugs, a little baffled by Dylan's reaction in the same way he was a little baffled by their reaction to his comment about Bubu's age. Sometimes he's just a very earnest little weirdo, okay?

Fair enough, though, as for why Dylan read it.

"Whoa, really?" Jack asks, fascination crossing his face. "That's awesome. And maybe also kinda weird. But mostly awesome."

He pauses a beat. "So, like... you knew this was a thing?" He gestures around them.

Leaning back into the wall behind him, Dylan folds his arms over his chest and mirrors the shrug.

"I had the opportunity to work with a couple of really good mentalists, back when I was still nailing down the whole Dylan Rhodes persona thing. One of 'em taught me this. How to kinda ... make my subconscious a place I can actually go.

"I didn't end up using it to separate myself -- " Because that had seemed like a good way to magically break himself mentally. He didn't want to inflict a split personality on himself. " -- but it's still kinda nice to have in my toolkit. I come here, sometimes, if I'm struggling with a case. Some of the shit that ends up here ... "

He hesitates, trying to find a way to explain it.

"It's like the sketchbook in the auditorium," he decides, finally. "Shit I might have noticed but didn't realize I'd noticed, like the way the skyline looked. Or thoughts I had, like about my old man. It's not perfect recall, not like a photographic memory thing, but it kinda lets me sift through my shit."

Like dreaming is supposed to be the brain's way of processing the day's events.

"Maybe I figure out something new because of I can see how the pieces fit together a little more clearly, maybe I don't."

"So like," Jack begins thoughtfully. "Kind of a meditation thing?"

Not that Jack knows that much about meditation, but that's what it sounds like anyway. A way to set aside distractions or stuff he doesn't want to think about to focus on the stuff he does.

"So why am I here? Because we're asleep?"

"Kind of a meditation thing," Dylan allows. It's a little more actual magic than just quieting his mind, but close enough. "As for why you're here ... "

He glances back at the door that lead to what appeared to be Jack's dressing room.

"You're there 'cause you're here." He touches his fingers to his temple, then his chest. "You're here in general because I kinda ... I've been plugged into you all day, to do the translation thing. I guess I forgot to unplug. Probably doesn't hurt that I think I was touching you when we fell back asleep, too."

Physical touch will always be a good anchor.

"Oh," Jack says simply to the first part of that, because he's not sure what else to say. As the narration has said before, it's not that he doesn't know Dylan cares about him, it's not that he doesn't care about Dylan, but he still doesn't entirely know what to do with his own feelings, considering how long it's been since he's let himself really care about anyone.

"Yeah, that's, uh... kinda what I meant," he manages after a long moment.

"Oh," Dylan repeats, gently, not mocking.

A brief, warm smile follows, and when it fades, he says, "Sorry, though. I wasn't planning on ... " Bringing him here. " ... or being a little Stepford Wives, before I realized." That he was asleep and this was a dream.

Jack shakes his head. "No, it's okay. I kinda knew it was a dream? Or, like... thought it was more of a dream, or whatever. Just kinda wasn't sure whose it was." Like he said, and he grins, crookedly.

The grin fades a little. "Woke up earlier because I dreamed I couldn't find you or whatever, so."

His filters might still be down a little, but he still looks a little shy about that admission. It makes sense that he would have dreamed about Dylan again, is his point.

"Couldn't find me, how?" Dylan asks, ever gentle.

While he expects an answer, however, he pushes away from the wall, that said, moving for another one of the doors. Pulling it open, he leads them into what appears to be a green room and moves for one of the couches set up in the middle of it. He figures they can at least sit and talk.

Jack follows, moving to take a seat on one of the other couches, half-facing Dylan. "Like, I was at home but you weren't there? And I went outside and everything was weird? Like... not bad weird just... didn't know where I was or whatever."

The change in scenery's obviously messing with him a little more than he realizes. Again, he wouldn't actually call it a nightmare, it was just unsettling enough that he woke up and needed to make sure everything was okay, which had led to him falling asleep in the chair.

"Guess I'm kinda... used to New York or whatever," he adds finally with a crooked, self-deprecating smile.

Dylan snorts in response to that, and a little more teasingly, he offers, "Next time I'll remember not to remove a Jack from his natural habitat."

He does, however, wonder how Jack would have fared if they'd slept at the warehouse. It may not sound like the city either, but the magic that he and his father both have bled into the place makes it feel familiar all the same. Like the carousel.

Jack laughs, reaching up to ruffle his own hair. "I mean, we already established New York's the best, don't really know why anyone would wanna go anywhere else."

He sobers again. "But I mean, I like being here and everything? Guess I'm just not, y'know. Used to being different places."

He knows Dylan is kidding with that, but he also doesn't want him to think it was a mistake, them coming out here.

"It takes time," he promises, sobering again, too. "And it's ... harder, when it's somewhere that doesn't speak the same language as you. It's kinda why I made myself Babel Fish, while we were running around. It gets overwhelming."

He'll still start teaching Jack to speak Chinese properly, but.

"I just don't wanna be, like... I don't know. It feels dumb," he admits to his knees as he pulls them up, bracing his heels on the edge of the couch, mirroring how he had been sitting in the chair.

He pauses a beat. "Maybe it would have helped if I'd brought a towel," he adds cheekily a moment later, because that book, he has read.

Dylan snorts. "Next time."

A beat.

"But seriously, Jack. You're a kid. It's okay for shit to be scary or overwhelming or whatever." And another. "Hell, I'm an adult and shit still strikes me as scary or overwhelming. I just gotta pretend that I got enough of my crap together to handle it."

Being an adult sucks.

Jack pauses a beat, tilting his head to look at Dylan. Finally, he nods, letting out a long breath. "Okay."

That's a new thing for him to agree to, honestly, considering he's been expected to keep his shit together in the face of constant changes for so much of his life. Being told that, hearing that from an adult he trusts... It takes something off his shoulders.

"Okay," Dylan repeats, seriously.

Another moment of pause follows, and then, "So, uh. What now?"

Yes, he knows it's his head, but Jack's just as responsible for this shared dream of their as he is.

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