rude awakening

[loficharm]

Martin wakes with a start and a quiet huff, not sure why. It's a little like waking up from a nightmare, only he doesn't remember what he'd been dreaming about at all — not even a sense of it. Instead, he's flooded by wakeful things: the feel of the sheets, crisp and wrong, like new, fresh sheets and not the ones with little stars on that he's had since he was practically a baby. The bed itself, much too big, the ceiling, the walls, the whole room, different, unfamiliar. Light coming in from the wrong window in the wrong place. And there's someone else here, with him, in the bed. A boy, his age, that he's never seen before.

All this happens very quickly, so quick that it isn't like he notices each of these little things independently, it's more like they flood him all at once, overwhelming and scary. The moment he realizes there's a boy beside him he sits bolt upright and flails back, kicking the sheets away with a little shriek.

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[pushbackthedarkness]

Marcus takes his phone and pushes it back into his pocket, then nods in response to Martin's question. "You have other friends, certainly," he says, although he doesn't know all of them, some only by name. He hadn't really known Martin at all really, not until this morning. Even now, he doesn't think he knows him. He's just a boy, not at all the man Kat and the others know.

"A young woman from my home, actually, Katherine Rance, is very good friends with you," he says. "And she works with you at a place called The Archive. There are some other people who work there as well, a woman named Daisy, I believe, though she and I have never met."

He's seen another man in the area as well, but has never introduced himself and doesn't know his name. They're all certain to know Martin and John, however.

"If you like, I can call Kat," he offers. "She can come here."

[loficharm]

Martin takes that in with a small frown, not really knowing what to make of it, most of his attention still on John. John hasn't said anything, which makes Martin worry, but he knows better than to pry or push. He barely knows John, no matter what Mr. Keane's told them, and much as he might like to offer some sort of comfort, he has no idea how to go about it. More than likely he'll just be annoying on top of everything else John's going through.

But this means it's still his job to answer Mr. Keane, and he's not sure how. They need to meet other people who might be able to explain things or help them figure out what to do, but he isn't sure he has a preference on how it happens. Part of him is curious to see this place where they supposedly work, though he's not sure what he'll find, or if they'll even be allowed like this. He has no idea what sort of business it's meant to be, even; he only knows 'The Archive' has got to be the boringest name for anything ever.

"I... I suppose," he says hesitantly, and then, unable to help himself even as he feels guilty for it, he gives John the gentlest nudge he can manage. "What do you think?"

[statement_ends]

John doesn't recognize the names Mr. Keane provides, but he doesn't expect to. He doesn't recognize 'The Archive,' either, though something about the name draws him out of his own anxious thoughts. He knows what an archive is, a little — like a library, but not open to everyone, and for more than just books — but calling it The Archive makes it sound like the only one in the city. It sounds... important.

Martin gives him a light nudge, and John sits up straighter, as much startled by the contact as jostled back into the moment. The little rush of adrenaline helps, though, and he looks up at Mr. Keane with a small frown. "Call her, please," he agrees. "I want to talk to her."

It's only a small part of him that still wonders if Mr. Keane is making it all up, but even if he was, it'd be hard to rope in someone else without talking to them about it beforehand. If Katherine Rance is really friends with them, maybe she'll be able to prove it more easily.

[pushbackthedarkness]

"I can put us on speaker phone," Marcus says with a nod, withdrawing the phone from his pocket again and swiping up so it opens for him after recognizing his face. He goes to his favourite contacts and presses the screen to call Kat, then hides that number pad so he can set the phone to speaker.

He has no idea what the hell he's going to say to her short of your boss and his boyfriend are children, but he doesn't think that's going to go over well with John or Martin. He's specifically left out the bit about them being boyfriends so far, not wanting to add to their stress, although they're not stupid children, he thinks they'll understand it eventually. Especially if they think on their flat for very long, which Marcus assumes has only the one bed for the two of them.

In his hand, the phone starts to ring, the sound filling the little room they're in.