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 Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2025 11:49 pm
The message on his tablet hadn't exactly given Jaidev much time to prepare. There wasn't any question in his mind what it was about; coodrinates and a time, for where they would all meet the monster that was bearing down on them.
And if they were all going to meet their fate tonight, there was somewhere he had to be, at least for a little bit. At least long enough to say goodbye, if goodbye was what it came to.
He didn't like to think about that. Didn't like to consider the possibility of failure. Not after all everyone had done to prevent the worst outcome. But the truth was that he was scared, deep down. The threat seemed so big. tHe consequences so insurmountable.
If they failed, everything ended.
And if there was even a chance everything was going to end, Jai at least wanted this.
So he knocked on the door of Simon's place, heart racing.
He wouldn't have long. But it would have to be long enough.
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2025 3:45 pm
Tabitha and Rhonda had gone to visit Rhonda’s parents for a long weekend, a state of affairs that, on one hand, eased Simon’s mind (less of a chance of awkwardness if Jaidev came over). On the other hand, though, his sister and her wife being out of town had him extremely concerned, if not outright anxious. He hadn’t been scheduled for any shifts at the ER today, so it had just been him, Benny, various tasks that Simon had to adult his way through (laundry, dishes, cleaning the fridge), assorted furniture that Benny kept hiding under when the storm raged too loudly for him, and a growing awareness of how bad the lightning storms were getting—as well as what that probably meant.
Not that Simon knew exactly what it probably meant. Unpacking the fact that these storms were magical in nature had also involved Simon needing to accept that this meant he didn’t understand them. Meant accepting that his ability to help anyone in this situation was incredibly limited. Sure, he could clean up after the fact if anyone needed medical help, but that assumed a lot about whether or not Jaidev and all the other magical people in town would win the day. Trying to help fight the world-eating monster head-on sounded like a good way for Simon to get himself and probably several other people hurt. And even as he rehashed all of this in his head for the five dozenth time, or however many times it had been, something about accepting the idea that he couldn’t help didn’t feel right.
Then again, Simon didn’t know enough about magic and world-eating extradimensional lightning monsters to question it.
When someone knocked on the door, Simon tensed. His nerves didn’t entirely ease when, opening the door, he found Jaidev waiting for him. He only waited long enough for Jaidev to get inside before asking, “It’s not just in my head, is it? Things really are getting worse, with the weather?”
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2025 4:11 pm
"Hey," he said, softly, as he stepped throguh the door. Simon's question, though, gave him a moment of pause. "...No, it's not just you." Of course people were noticing, and letting Simon be in the know might mean he was noticing even more.
"It's...here. Or I guess it's close." He exhaled. "I got a message earlier, on my magical comms device. Just a time and location, no sender. That's not how things usually work, and I'm pretty sure it's...a summons. To fight this thing, or do whatever we can that's like fighting it."
He let out a breath.
"But that's in a couple of hours. So I wanted to come here. See you. Have something...nice, for however long I have." He didn't want to act like this was the end of the world. That would be giving up before the fight even started. But he couldn't pretend that he was totally optimistic about all of this, either.
"I...really care about you, Simon." Easier than the more blatant, obvious way to say it. "And I just...we don't have to do anything. But I want to spend my last few hours before I go off to fight an apocalyptic monster with you."
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2025 11:16 pm
On some level, Simon still struggled to really drink in all of the things that Jaidev had told him about this magical side of the world. It wasn’t something that tracked with Simon’s own experiences or how he had grown up seeing things. Magic was something that existed in fantasy stories, not something that affected any real people out in the world, and definitely not something that threatened people in such a pressing, materially significant way.
Except that wasn’t true. And more and more things made sense if it was allowed to not be true.
Hearing Jaidev’s confirmation that the storms were getting more violent, Simon sighed. And there was more he’d really need to work at unpacking. He ran a hand back through his hair, trying to focus on the things that he could understand more easily right now: Jaidev here and now, right in front of him. Something was coming together, something like what Jaidev had described before, people from disparate magical groups uniting to help each other fight this threat that none of them could take on their own. Not something Simon could do anything about, but it meant that there was reason for hope.
And in the meantime, there was Jaidev. There was Jaidev’s hand, and—Jaidev’s mouth, saying something that made Simon pause. Made his eyes go a bit wider. His mouth didn’t entirely fall open, but still distinctly not closed. It……those words……even without having the L-word in there, the sentiment came through to Simon—or at least the sentiment that he wanted to be there for real—and……well.
“Y’know, I might not have believed you if you’d said the other word there just now,” Simon said fondly, reaching for Jaidev’s hand. “Not for any reasons to do with you, but reasons better left in the past.” Too many people would say they loved you without meaning it. Simon’s parents. Tod. That piece of s**t who’d drawn Tod and so many other idiots into his orbit. “But—come on. There’s dinner in the kitchen, and we can see where things take us? Hopefully, we’ll have you going into the fight with a clear head.”
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2025 12:10 am
It was a lot, Jaidev knew, to put all of this on someone who couldn't do anything about it. To open the door to a world Simon couldn't be a part of, in a way that left him with more questions than answers. It probably wasn't fair, doing that to him.
They were in it now, of course. There was no un-telling him the truth. Jaidev would just have to manage the consequences, whatever they turned out to be.
And anyway, Simon made him crack a smile and let out a soft little laugh, as he took his hand.
"Yeah, well. After everything else I've sprung on you, dropping the whole word seemed like a lot. But I mean what I said." Even if it was hard to get his mouth around the words, for a million reasons that, much like Simon's, had nothing to do with the man in front of him. "For now, though, dinner sounds great. And we'll figure out the rest."
They might not have all the time in the world, but Jaidev would make the time they had enough.
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