forum Glitches // OxO // Closed

Started November 27, 2019 by @ElderGod-Icefire

tune

"Jesus Christ!" Jude gasped, resting his hand on his forehead in relief. He let out a few long sighs, bracing a hand against the doorframe for a moment as his heartbeat slowed. "I can't believe you— God. Gimme a moment." Farrah's hurried footsteps rounded the corner of the hall and she stepped into view, wearing a look of pure annoyance. Randall playfully ruffled up Jude's light hair, towering over the rest of the group as he shook his head and collected a ten-dollar bill from Farrah on his way to the kitchen. "Told you he'd be fine." Jude was hardly processing the situation, shaking his head as Keagan and Steve appeared.

"I'm sorry, man, I was—" Jude began, looking one way and then the other, "I was—"

"With him?" Farrah interrupted, pushing past the two as she peered over Jude's shoulder. She shook her head, taking in the sight before her. A timid thing; seemingly good-looking but so easily spooked by strangers. He's not from New York, that's for sure. "You'd better come in, Judy. You got some explaining t'do, don't you think?" She tossed a few braids over her shoulder, sighing as she nodded inside, "And this guy, too. If he's got to do with you bailing on our plans and disappearing off the face of the Earth."

Nyx stayed quiet, sticking very close to Jude as he followed the other man inside the apartment, blue eyes bigger than normal as his gaze flicked from person to person. He hadn't been prepared for so many people all at once, and he looked almost exactly like a startled animal. He knew Jude had talked about his friends before, but still. So many people all at once, that were all loud and curious…it was a lot for him.

Steve and Keagan followed into the apartment, Keagan sitting down on the arm of the couch and looking at Jude and Nyx. "He's cute, but you don't get to just abandon us at the drop of a hat for a cute piece of ass, you asshole." They remarked. "Some of us were worried about your addiction issues, y'know. Steve was sure you were going to turn up dead at the side of the road."

Steve cuffed Keagan on the shoulder. "I said it once, you asshole!" He hissed. "Once! When I was drunk! Piss off, I did not think Judy was dead."

Randall wore a mixed look of relief and quiet annoyance as he walked out of the kitchen with beers, joining them in the living room. Farrah muttered something bitter and incoherent, wordlessly accepting the beer that Randall offered her. The two had always been the most serious of the group, and though they would never admit it, growing up in foster care together had made them nervous about losing people they cared for.
With so many people gathered in his living room, Jude was just short of being overwhelmed. People were moving all over the place, speaking to him and the others and waiting for him to respond. Jude opened his mouth to speak again, but he could feel himself blush at Keagan's remark, and was suddenly reminded of their situation. They won't figure it out. I'll tell them what I need to, they'll forgive me, and everyone will be happy again. With a nervous breath, he cast a shy glance at Nyx, who seemed twice as anxious as he was. He reached out for his hand at the moment of Steve and Keagan's distracted bickering, giving it a reassuring squeeze as he met Nyx's blue gaze with his own.

"Hey. This is fine. Don't worry about them. You wanted to meet them, right?" He quietly said, offering a faint smile.

Dragging two chairs away from the dinner table, Randall set them to face the rest of the group. He placed a few other beers on the coffee table, letting out a long, drawn-out sigh as he took a seat with the rest of them.

"Go on," Randall said, tattooed hand reaching for a beer, "Siddown." Farrah nodded at the chairs. "Explain yourself."

Nyx pressed closer to Jude shyly, looking around at the group with an uncertain gaze. "Yeah, but…I wasn't ready." He replied quietly, shaking his head faintly at Jude and looking rather overwhelmed and anxious about all of this.

Steve's eyes flicked curiously to Nyx. "Your friend looks a little overwhelmed, Jude." He commented, shifting a little bit and raising his eyebrows. "Where have you been?"

Keagan picked up a beer, opening it up and taking a sip, still looking inquisitively at Jude and Nyx.

Jude nodded to himself, timidly taking a seat in the intervention-style conference in his living room. He nodded for Nyx to take a seat next to him. A moment of silence held the room as Jude thought of what to say; how to start, where to begin? His friends exchanged a few impatient looks, and Jude bit his lip.

"Right, yeah…So," He tried, running a nervous hand through his hair. Drawing a blank. How could he tell them a version of the truth that was believable? And Nyx? How could he explain Nyx? "First of all, I'm sorry, right? I didn't mean to ghost…everyone. Honest. I haven't been out of town or anything. I…started working with my dad—" Farrah choked on a mouthful of beer; Randall's brow twitched into a frown.
"—Your dad? Wha– Why?" She questioned, coughing as she shook her head. His father was all but the villain in the stories of his childhood, and his friends had managed to pull countless stories of neglect and disappointment out of Jude; drunk, high, or sober.
"Yeah. We'll talk about that, but that still doesn't explain why you're with him," Randall said with an air of coolness, pointing to Nyx with the mouth of his bottle. An icy grip of panic held Jude for a moment, and with a nervous sigh, he glanced around the room.
"…I know. But a lot's happened this past week or two, and we—"
"No-no-no," Randal interrupted, dark eyes flickering to Nyx, "I want to hear it from him."

Nyx's eyes widened a little as he was singled out, and pressed closer to Jude, still very uncertain about all of this. "I-I, uhm…" He trailed off, looking between all the different people, then up at Nyx again, then over to Randall. This was a lot. It was…maybe too much. He had no idea what to say in response to this, to Randall, to any of this. "Jude can explain better." He finally managed, eyes flickering around the group.

Jude took a long breath, nodding before opening his mouth to speak.
"No, Judy, I wanna hear what he has to say," Randall insisted, shaking his head. His irritation was plain to see through the steady gaze centred on the stranger next to his best friend. "It's been, what, a year since your overdose? No benders, no slip-ups, nothing. Then suddenly— you ditch our plans; no texts, no calls; Farrah even tried hitting you up on her way to work, but you weren't home. And now this guy shows up and you're playing house."
"Hey, calm down a bit, would ya? It's not his fault." Jude's hand stuttered a slowing movement, trying to deescalate the tension sitting in the room.
"Randall has a point. Everything was fine, until, I'm guessing, he came into the picture." Farrah quietly added, recalling the growing worry shared between them when they first suspected something was wrong. Her gaze flickered over to Nyx, looking him up and down. Jude didn't take in strays. "Cause, like, who are you again?"

(oooooh I love that idea!! Yessss)

Nyx curled into himself uncertainly. "My name is Nyx." He replied, knees curling to his chest. He pulled his socks up to ensure that none of Jude's friends would see the metal of his legs. He didn't make eye contact with any of them, either, and he glanced up at Jude again. His head was starting to hurt from all of this, and he glanced over the group again before looking down at the coffee table.

"Wow, that definitely answered all of our questions. Thanks." Keagan said, rolling their eyes.

Farrah shook her head with a shrug of her broad shoulders, glancing at the rest of the group, "Clearly Nyx doesn't want to talk. Probably cause he knows he fucked things up."
"Farrah, oh my God," Jude all but hissed, frowning at her. He had come to familiarize himself with her overprotectiveness— all coming from a place of love, but her words were getting sharper by the minute. With an apologetic glance to Nyx, he rested a comforting hand on his thigh. How could he handle these quiet attacks without raising suspicion? "He just moved here— damn. You don't gotta be so sharp with him; he didn't do anything." A careful half-lie. Jude prayed it wasn't showing through his face; Steve could sniff out a lie like it was nobody's business.
"Bullshit." Randall laughed, "You expect me to believe this guy— this guy in front of me —chose to move here?" His brown eyes scanned Nyx's anxious state. He wouldn't last a day. Obviously, he was some lost tourist. "Please."
"It's complicated, okay? I'm helping him out. But he still didn't do anything. If you would give me—"
"Him." Randall corrected. He didn't trust Jude to tell the whole truth.
"—Us a minute to explain things without getting hounded with accusations, maybe you'd find the situation isn't as bad as it seems." Jude let out a cautious breath, gaze flickering around the suddenly silent room, "Right, Nyx?"

Steve narrowed his eyes a little. "This is bullshit. Why aren't you talking, Nyx? No one's this shy."

Nyx shrank away, pressing closer to Jude in an attempt to shield himself from all the attention. He nodded faintly. "Right." He said in response to Jude, glancing up at him uncertainly, then at the group again.

Jude opened his mouth to speak, but a stern look from Farrah made him hesitate. "Keagan–" He tried, sighing as he was met with a cold, plain look. Meeting everyone else's gaze, he was left with the same disregard. They wouldn't believe him. A quiet panic threatened to rise in his chest as he turned to Nyx in a simultaneous plead and apology. A quiet moment passed between them all. There was no room for mistake. He would have to trust Nyx in conjuring up a story. Oh, but how would he fare with playing out such emotions? He needed to push through the fear clouding the room.
"Go on," Jude gently told him, holding his hand as he spoke through his gaze. Lie. Anything. "They wanna know." Make it believable.

Nyx swallowed faintly, eyes flickering around the group before fixing on the floor, unable to meet their eyes. "I-I…uhm…" He bit his lip for a moment, struggling to come up with a story that wouldn't have too many holes in it. "I'm, I study, uhm, robotics." He said slowly. Close enough, right? "I, uh, work…worked…for his father's, ah, company. For…a while." He spoke slowly and carefully. Technically, nothing he was saying was an outright lie, it was just…a twist of the truth. "I…met Jude when he…visited the facility." That too was true. "And I guess it…uhm…it grew from there." He didn't meet anyone's eyes, just glanced anxiously up at Jude before looking away again. He had no idea if this story would hold up; he didn't know enough about the world to know if stuff could really happen like that. He hoped this story was good enough.

Jude sighed, nodding gently as gave Nyx's hand a reassuring squeeze. He turned back to the group, looking to Steve. It was the truth, mostly. He would have to believe him. But he hated how much their suspicion was hurting Nyx; he'd only been out for so long, and this type of conflict was too much.
"That was the last day we heard from you," Farrah quietly recalled, thinking back to Jude's dramatic groaning over the phone. "But something else must've happened. It still doesn't make sense."
"…Like I said, I'm workin' for my dad now," Jude timidly shrugged.
"Why?"
"Because…" he struggled to come up with something. His heartbeat filled his ears and the room grew hot and still. Fuck. Jude glanced at Nyx, trying to find comfort in his bright blue eyes. Randall shifted in his seat. What could he possibly tell them? That he had forgiven all the bullshit he had to take from him as a kid? Or–
"We're building a case against him." Jude all but gasped at his miraculous reply. Randall's lips parted in quiet shock, and Farrah took a long breath. Yes. They buy it. With slow nods and careful breathing, Jude tried to seem sincere, hoping the hot flush of his cheeks wasn't read as untruthful. "We're not supposed to let anyone know…but we're working with the feds. They want us on the inside."

Nyx nodded faintly, fidgeting for a moment at the mention of the feds. His only experience with them had been with military higher-ups, coming in to check on the experiment that they were funding. He let Jude talk, though, not wanting to interrupt and fuck all of this up. He wondered, for a moment, if showing Jude's friends his legs, his arms, would help prove what Jude was saying. But he didn't want to just…do that. Not when he didn't know what it would do.

The room sat in pensive silence, uncomposed questions hesitating behind their tongues. Jude crossed his arms, not knowing what to do with his hands in the shifting tension of the interrogation. He glanced at Nyx, urging him with his gaze to add to the newly former cover story unfolding before their eyes. There had to be some understanding between them when it came to keeping their story straight.
Everyone began at once, lips parted in quiet shock as they began the stuttering "What? How… Wait, why—"
"I know it's a lot to take in," Jude said, blue eyes flickering over the expressions surrounding, "Believe me, I was… I was upset by some things we learned. I know he's a horrible person…but he's my… But the main point is we shouldn't… We can't talk about it."
Randall set his beer on the coffee table, slowly combing a hand through his dark hair in tired consideration. "Wait. So… Is this why you've been…gone?"
"—It still doesn't explain him," Farrah sharpy added, centering her gaze back on the stranger. "There are two sets of dishes in the sink, you were coming up to the apartment together, and Jude keeps looking at…what's his name? Nate? Looking at him like he wants to…reassure him. Even if he's some loner working with the government, they're obviously involved."

"Nyx. My name is Nyx. And I told you, I was…involved with the company for a while. Believe it or not I know more about what goes on behind the scenes there than you could dream." He was raised there, he knew more than anyone else could about that company. Except perhaps for Jude's father. "And, yes, Jude and I are involved, to use your words." He didn't look up, keeping his gaze trained on his feet where they tested on the edge of the couch.
"'kay, whatever. You're what, 18? 19? You look like a kid. No fucking way have you been working with RTI long enough to know shit." Keagan pointed out, arching a brow at Nyx and Jude.
Nyx narrowed his eyes a little bit at Keagan, but didn't say anything to refute his claims.

Jude frowned, his hand cutting the air in a defensive gesture. "I graduated at sixteen, remember? Then dad had me at RTI while I was in college," He hastily declared, recalling the dreadful year he started using, the following year of travelling and Neil and then the incident. The shared looks between all of them told him that they were thinking the same. But he couldn't bear to look at Keagan during the flow of sharp, silent inhales that surrounded him. It was Keagan who found Jude that day, cold and unmoving on the floor of his apartment after weeks of silence. After that, his friends finally began piecing together the cause of his addiction and spiralling mental state: the neglect of his upbringing, the remaining anger of his cold childhood, and the pressure of being Aaron Crowe's only son had driven him into desperation and impulsivity only encouraged by the sweet, costly morphine bought with his father's money. "He's…" Jude began, feeling the breath knocked out of him as he realized a painful and beautiful truth about the two of them. He's lost. Angry. Confused. Hungry. Aching for the real world. Jude's blue eyes were glassy with hot tears as they flickered up to the pained expressions centred on him. "He's like me."

Keagan clenched their jaw for a moment, shaking their head a little. "This…child, Jude, looks like he's been living under a fucking rock." they said, studying Jude but finding it difficult to stay angry when there were tears in their friend's eyes. They looked away, shaking their head again and running a hand through their hair. "Sorry. I just…" they trailed off, shaking his head faintly.
Nyx looked up at Jude, then over at the whole group, unsure about all of this and feeling like he was missing something. He slid his hand into Jude's, squeezing the other boy's hand gently.

"He's not a kid," Jude bitterly declared, challenging Keagan's gaze through the blur of tears, "Don't talk about him like he is and he isn't right there." Nyx's hand was cold, though all he could feel was the touch of a sentient metaphor: the walking image of excellence and achievement that had ruined him.
"Oh then I'm sure he wouldn't freak out if we told him, would he?" Randall suddenly snapped. His inked arms were folded on his chest, with shoulders raised and an early scowl seeping through. He had known Jude the longest, and to see a stranger walk into their lives and interrupt what little sense of family they uphheld for each other stirred a boiling hostility in the pit of his stomach. A shaky breath fell from Jude as Randall glared at Nyx.
"No–" He said, "Randall. You don't gotta tell him. It won't change anything. Listen. Listen– I already told h–" But the question had spread to everyone else. What would happen if Nyx found out the whole story behind Jude, his father, and his addiction? It wasn't likely that he knew much. And if he really was as naïve as they suspected he was, then surely he'd be disturbed to hear of his near death.
"I mean he obviously doesn't know how Jude and his father's company," Farrah added, "You say he's with the feds but he doesn't know shit about how work and his dad fucked Judy up. If he did know, then he'd understand why Jude shouldn't go anywhere near RTI." Keagan and Steve met each other with gentle nods while Jude struggled for words. Nononono. The heartbeat in his ears was feverish and uneven.
"Hey how 'bout it, Nyx? Don't you wanna know a little something about your boy? Why we're all so…" Randall sighed, leaning back in his seat with a cold look, "So worried?"

Nyx looked between them, then at Jude, worried and uncertain about all of this, his head beginning to hurt from all of the strange newness of all of this. "N-no, I…I'm…" he clung to Jude's hand, though still careful not to hold hard enough to hurt Jude. He looked up at Jude again with a question in his blue eyes, mismatched as they were. He tapped his finger lightly against Jude's hand, the other hand tugging faintly on the hems of his pantlegs. Should he lift up the edges of his pants, and show Jude's friends the metal that was there, instead of flesh? Demonstrate the brute strength in those cybernetic limbs? Would the truth help, or would it only make all of their questions worse?
Steven grimaced. "Fuck, this is such bullshit, Jude. He may not be a kid age-wise but fucking look at him, he looks like he's gonna have a nervous breakdown just from being questioned a bit. God, where did you find him?" the man raked his hands through his dark hair, the tattoo sleeve on his left arm visible. "He isn't even fucking defending himself."

Jude caught Nyx's hesitation, and with a sharp inhale he shook his head. They couldn't afford to tell the truth. Not now, when hostility poisoned the air around them. Gripping Nyx's hand, Jude released his shaky breath.
"Listen. Listen," He said in a rough whisper, "I just think we all need to calm down. There's no reason for you guys to keep this shit up. We told the truth. Most of it, anyway."
"Yeah, but—" Farrah tried.
"—Even though I'm o-kay, I've still had a pretty fucking hard time– thanks for asking –and I don't…appreciate you attacking him— us like this." He could feel the early scrape of his voice beginning to break, and he tried to swallow it down. The room grew silent, and Jude tore a hand through his hair just to stop it from shaking. Hesitancy and quiet regret held them for a long moment as they realized how much anger had been hurled towards a stranger and their best friend. Frowns softened, and hands reached for beer bottles. Jude's right, Farrah realized, and moved to retrieve a notebook out of her sheepskin jacket. We need to shut it down before this gets messy. She'd be damned if she was going to let escalated concern drive their group to disconnect. Time in the foster system taught her what it meant to see anger take over, and she wouldn't have it with them. They all watched as she thumbed through her 'notes from therapy,' nodding when she came across Conflict Resolution and Communication.
"Okay," She said, looking around the room as she spoke in a stern, steady tone, "It's obvious that our reactions are hurting Jude." Randall bit his lip. "We should go around the room and try again. Say what we're feeling in a calm way. Right?" Farrah took a long breath, turning to her friends with an expectant look.
"Stevie, why don't you go first? Calmly. Without snapping."

Steven took a sip from his beer, frowning as he considered what to say. "I…was worried." He said slowly. "Still am. And your new boyfriend either has the worst case of social anxiety that I've ever seen, or he's lying and is shit at it, okay? You guys are dodging questions and I don't like it. Any of it." He said, rolling his bottle between his hands while looking straight over at Jude, a faint challenge in his eyes.
Nyx nodded faintly at Jude, letting go of his pant legs and staying still and quiet. He didn't want to make this any worse, he hadn't meant to cause so much trouble.

Farrah sighed, nodding as she looked between Jude and Steve. "Right," She said, "That was…pretty good. Jude, what do you have to say?" All eyes were centered on him. He took a steadying breath, glancing at Nyx for courage before beginning to speak. "I…get that you were worried," Jude began, biting his lip as he held Steve's gaze, "And I'm grateful to have you and the rest of the guys looking out for me. But…I don't like how you're treating Nyx, it's not fair. You don't know anything about each other and yet you're callin' him a liar. He does have social anxiety, and I could've told you that if things had gone a little smoother with introductions."
Farrah hummed in approval, pursing her lips. "Yeah, I…recognize how—" A glance down at her notebook, "—the reactions may have escalated things, creating a tense environment."
"Exactly. Thank you."
"Mmm. Who's next? Keagan? What do you have to say about this? In a calm way."

Keagan watched Jude and Nyx quietly for a long moment before speaking. "Look, I just…fuck. I was worried. You dropped communication and then turn up with…whoever the fuck this is and, like Steven said, you just…dodge questions! And…god, it's just fucking frustrating, okay? We're just worried about you." They grimaced, running a hand through their hair.
Nyx stayed quiet.