sam doesn't move at first, just adjusts his weight and listens.

alecto gives the clowns a dose of their own medicine, a HEX just for good measure to make sure they make it out alright. all well astrea sheds a little MOONLIGHT from her body, to help illuminate their way.

"knox, we can leave... i would much rather spend my time doing something that makes you smile than exploring this horror show and see you in discomfort like this."

he would bomb the world if it means knox was happy.

knox prescott

you really can't tough it out for him? just half an hour again, he was nearly skipping at the idea of this place. and now you're here to suck all the fun out of it for him 'cause you can't get your shit together. whispers in the back of his mind, but it's not the ghosts' doing. no, he doesn't need their help for that. 

"shoulda known you couldn't be scared anyway. how 'bout a moonlit walk on a beach somewhere, eh? get all romantic? 

"you can fuck me any way you want as your birthday gift instead?"

samuel carter

☉

"whether i make love to you or not on my birthday doesn't bother me," sam's words are soft, so theat he doesn't sound abrasive or cruel as he knows that's how he can come off most of the time. "but a walk on the beach sounds great."

because then, he'll see knox's smile. then, he hear his laugh and see him happier. that's all sam wants, is to see knox happier. it's all he's wanted for a long time.

if he has to huff the happiness, then fine. if sam's not apart of the happiness, then so be it. it has taken him a while to get to the idea, but... he even has a sort of 'surprise' question for knox, but he's not sure how to pose it without sounding like a doormat.

something knox told him repeatedly not to do.

"let's go, hm?"

he gives knox the choice, because he honestly doesn't mind either way, and shows as much with his hand on his gardevoir's capsule, slowly thumbing over the release.

knox prescott

a walk on the beach does sound great. and he knows that sam really doesn't mind, that he'll cut away from this at the drop of a hat if knox asked him to. that's exactly why he hesitates though. he's literally on sam's back and the ghosts have toned it down some. they linger on the fringes, materializing and dematerializing on and off, looking blankly at the pair. 

and they feel his anguish and they hunger, which is why they watch as they do. they're tamed, so the advertisement says, but even the hungriest pet will lash out under the right pressure. 

one of them totters closer - a banette with horrible red eyes - and only a low growl of warning from astrea, a pulse of her rings, wards it away. 

knox breaks. he'll feel bad about it later, but he's a selfish little thing. always has been, always will be. so he taps aether's pokeball and the gardevoir appears in a shimmering cloud. 

the rest of the faces around them dissolve. 

samuel carter

☉