Who: Kaysen, Thom, Isaac, and Peyton
When: night!
Where: Thom's basement

As promised, Isaac had shown up at the Harkin house an hour before sundown, with his sister and Peyton in tow. The St. James parents hadn't much liked the idea at first, not wanting their kids to be absent all night with everything going on, but Isaac had managed to convince them that this was the best plan. The Harkins had a finished basement, there was safety in numbers, and Ashbelle had regular police patrols watching the place (which was something he'd just made up off the top of his head, but sounded pretty good at the time). Eventually they'd relented, and he'd made the calls, got some stuff packed, and jaunted off to pick up Peyton.

He opened the front door and let the three of them in, walking in with the familiarity that he always had, and started to lead the way toward the basement, adjusting the backpack on his shoulder. It was stuffed mostly full of air mattress, and the pump thing was in one of his hands, clunking lightly against the door as he opened it and started down the stairs. Stubborn bastard better be sleeping, he thought to himself, the possibility keeping him from hollering out a greeting as per usual.

Kaysen was weirded out. Like, in a major way. While the concept of going to sleep at Thom's was fine in and of itself, the practicality of it was kinda making her go '....'. When they walked down the steps, she didn't really have much to say, her hoodie on, hood up to kind of half hide even if she didn't really need to just now. She didn't know Peyton well though, just that she was like...dating her brother or something, and Isaac hadn't really made a huge point of getting them together to meet or anything. So she was stuck in not knowing what to say land. Which had her sitting down on the basement steps, propping her head on both of her hands, elbows on her knees. She was about six steps up, too, like she wasn't fully entering the basement just yet, she was sort of...back and being unobtrusive.

Peyton really didn't know what to say either. The plan had changed from Isaac's house to Thom's, and Peyton had left a quick message on her dad's cell that she would be at Judge Harkin's home in case he called the St. James to check on her, which she knew he would. Kaysen was being quiet - which wasn't really unusual as Peyton had never been formally introduced to Isaac's sister, and all she ever saw of Kaysen at school was the girl moving through the halls, trying to be invisible. She did sorta hope Isaac hadn't told Thom about her visit to Ethan's earlier. She didn't want two guys looking at her like she was a moron, so she kind of stayed behind Isaac as they entered Thom's basement, feeling a bit out of place herself.

Thom was, in fact, sleeping - crashed out on the couch, still fully clothed, lying on his front with one arm hanging off the edge to the floor. He hadn't gotten to lie down until just over an hour beforehand, but he'd got there in the end and immediately fallen into a deep sleep, positive that Isaac would wake him up when they arrived. He had shit to do, after all.

Isaac wasn't keen on waking Thom up right away. He felt sure that he'd probably only just gotten to sleep, and they had a little time yet, didn't they? But then, he didn't know what-all was planned before dark, and though the earful would be worth it if he let him sleep, there was shit going on and who knew, right? He put the backpack down and moved over to the side of the couch. He hated to do it, could see the dark circles under his eyes and everything. Maybe when they all got settled, they could sleep in shifts. "Thom," he said down at his friend's back, lifting one sneaker to gently prod him in the calf.

Thom grumbled a little and shifted before surfacing out of sleep with a grunt and a little jump, shaking himself awake. "Wha'? Shit - wha' what time is it?" he asked, sitting up immediately and looking at his watch. Good, they still had time - it would still be light out. He blinked again and reached to rub sleep out of his eyes, looking at the others. "I'm awake," he claimed.

Kaysen watched from her little perch on the stairs, kinda also feeling bad about waking Thom up. Even if she hadn't technically done it. It seemed like everyone needed sleep. She knew she did, though she was far too nervous and everything to actually do that. But hey, if Thom could get some, that was one of them who wouldn't be strung out and overtired, right? Maybe Peyton had slept too. She knew Isaac hadn't much either. So it could just be her and her brother who sucked a bit.

Glancing at Isaac, Peyton almost asked him if they should let Thom sleep. He looked exhausted and she immediately felt a bit guilty, waking him up. She stepped forward, her bag on her shoulder. "What should we do?" she asked. "I mean, is there anything we can do to help?" She didn't really know what Thom had planned to do, if he had already done it, or what.

Yeah, that not-really-awake expression solidified Isaac's idea that there would be shift-sleeping. "Sorry," he said to the guy, even though he knew that had been what was expected of him. Didn't mean he had to like it. He glanced over at Peyton, and then his sister on the stairs, letting Thom field the 'is there anything we can do' question. "Anybody want a soda or anything?" he offered instead.

"I want your bracelets," Thom said, shifting to a slightly more awake mode and approaching fully awake pretty quickly. "I... found something that should tune them more into vampires. Specifically making them want to stay away from you," he explained, standing and taking his own off, waiting for the others to give him theirs.

Kaysen tugged the cuff of her hoodie up enough to pull her bracelet off, then tossed it over in Thom's direction instead of standing up and walking over. She didn't question it, really. Though she was kind of curious what that might entail. She didn't really know anything about that shit. But then again, she didn't really know anything about most shit, so that? Wasn't really a big surprise or anything. Her mind was vaguely drifting onto Chance, and if he was okay. After her call with him and everything, things were...weird. And she was distinctly not a fan of that.

Peyton set her bag down and pulled off the bracelet, picking up Kaysen's from the floor and handing them both to Thom. She wondered if he'd do the magic tuning in front of them. Because that would be... cool. Looking over at Isaac, she shook her head silently at his offer, but wanted to go over to him. Instead, she remained in place, glancing at Kaysen and then Thom. She didn't know what the night was going to bring and it was beginning to weird her out a bit.

Isaac handed his over as well, since he had forewarning and everything that extra stuff was going to be done to them. Once Thom had headed upstairs, he went and sat on the couch, glancing between the two girls. Okay so maybe a forced sleepover due to vampires wasn't the way he'd really intended on getting them used to one another, but hey, you worked with that you had. He looked at Kaysen in a slightly questioning way, not wanting to put her on the spot with 'you coming down?' But the intent was there. He didn't much know where to start, either.

Kaysen gave him a bit of a 'aw, man, whatever' sort of expression, sighed overly heavily and trudged down the rest of the steps. Then she sort of half wandered over under the stairs, and sat down, sort of automatically going for 'invisible'.

Slightly disappointed that Thom wasn't going to do magic in front of them, Peyton fidgeted and debated whether or not to sit down next to Isaac or stay where she was. Kaysen didn't appear to want to come any closer, which Peyton felt partially to blame for. Unless that was just how Kaysen acted with her brother and Thom... Peyton didn't really know. She finally decided to sit on the couch next to Isaac, her hands clasped between her knees. "This is definitely a change from the sleepovers I used to have," she informed him with a weak, teasing smile. "So I'm guessing there's not going to be anything like truth or dare, or you know, braiding each other's hair or anything."

He put an arm sort of around her, letting it mostly rest on the back of the couch, as he shifted and slouched a little more. "I brought some playing cards," he admitted with a soft chuckle. "I know there's boardgames somewhere around here." He didn't know if any of them would feel like doing anything, but a whole night of sleeplessly sitting around was going to suck. "I'm thinking ghost stories are probably out of the question," he added in a murmur. Still, he felt better that they were all together and going to be safer here.

In a fit of being massively unfair, Kaysen sulked. And now they were murmuring to each other and being all coupley. Or actually--totally not. It wasn't like they were making out or anything, but Kaysen took it as that. Her boyfriend was Elsewhere. Actually, thinking about him made her feel bad again, because she still didn't know what was happening there and she wondered if he was okay, but didn't figure calling him up right now to possibly argue was going to help anyone's disposition. So instead she remained where she was, and pouted.

Peyton leaned back against the couch, her head resting on his arm behind her. She wanted to curl into him and cling, but figured that probably wasn't the wisest move to make with his sister there, looking fairly...erm, unhappy, and Thom no doubt returning soon. "Honestly any ghost story I could come up with would pale in comparison to what's really going on," Peyton replied quietly. But maybe she was handling it better than she had been. It was easier, it seemed, knowing that there was some good weird stuff out there to balance out the bad.

It wasn't like Kaysen's default mode wasn't 'sulk', but that? Was bothering Isaac. He hadn't really expected her to be all warm and fuzzy and thrilled to bits about all this, but she could at least say something, for god's sake. She was just radiating badness from over there, and he really couldn't see the reason for it at the moment. He didn't really want to abandon Peyton to sit by herself, but the tug of sisterly unhappiness was stupidly strong. He gave his girlfriend a quick kiss on the temple. "Be back in a minute, sorry," he murmured to her, then stood up and went to Kaysen, crouching down in front of her. "What's wrong, Yak?" he asked in a soft tone just for her. Besides everything.

Wincing, Kaysen instantly felt bad. She had hoped that she'd picked a spot where she couldn't necessarily be seen very well, with her invisibility thing going on that she liked so much, but apparently that wasn't the case. Which she probably should have realized, considering the steps didn't like, have a backdrop or anything, so she could probably be seen through those. Crap. She'd been kind of going to just be off in her own little world, she hadn't meant to like...bug her brother while he was having girl-time or whatever. So, she didn't quite know what to say, because what was wrong was stupid, and she knew it'd just make him feel weird or something. "Nothing, just...bad night." she mumbled back. "Don't worry about it." Which she was kinda sure wasn't going to happen, but it was worth a try. "I was gonna sit here'n like, rest or something." she tacked onto the end, to sort of give him room to go back about his business.

Peyton stayed where she was, glancing occasionally at Isaac and Kaysen, both talking in low voices. She was starting to get the feeling Kaysen didn't like her, which could have been extreme paranoia, given Kaysen was usually withdrawn and standoffish. But still, she didn't want her boyfriend's sister to dislike her. Peyton had a problem with almost anyone disliking her. She reached down to dig through her bag, searching for her iPod when she realized Herbert still had it. Sighing, she pulled out her notebook and pencil to flip it open to some of the music she had been working on and abandoned after Isaac had disappeared. She had a feeling she wouldn't be getting much sleep that night, might as well be productive.

"Um, yeah, okay. 'Cause I'm really gonna do that," he said in a tone that indicated she should totally know better than that. Which she probably did. Isaac settled down into sitting, resting his arms on his upraised knees. "I know it's a bad night, but that's not all of it. So spill." He watched her and waited, and would continue to do so until she started telling him what was really wrong. That was just what he did.

Kaysen gave him a Look that said she didn't appreciate him bugging her right now, but also knew him well enough to know he wouldn't go away just because she glared. He was used to her glares, they never mattered before, they wouldn't start now. "Nothing, this is just...weird, okay? It's weird and I don't really know what to do with myself. So just...lemme 'lone, and go make sure your girlfriend's okay." she said, making a shooing motion.

Isaac gave her a Look. No, he would not be shooed. "She's fine, I left her about a full minute ago," he said. "I know it's weird, but you're just making it weirder by sitting over here under the stairs alone." He sighed softly and gave her an expression that was softer. "Why don't you come over and like ... try talking to us? C'mon, you've known Peyton a long time. Or at least like ... known of her. Come over and play cards or something. We've got a long night. Please?" To either be more convincing, or make her smile, he did his best Sad Puppy Dog Face, complete with bottom lip stuck out.

Kaysen stared at him. "Because I'm so social, and she's made so much of an effort to talk to me too." she said flatly. "Whatever, Isaac." She sighed heavily. "I could go upstairs or something...just...go crash out. Then you guys could like..." she made a vague gesture that totally made no clear indication. "...you gonna be pissed at me if I don't?" she asked finally, to put a fine point on it. Because if he was, then she'd bite the bullet and play cards. Or try.

Thom got back to the basement just in time to hear Kaysen talking about how she was going to go upstairs. "You're not going upstairs - best if we just all stay down here," he told her, and the rest of them, in a firm tone as he handed the bracelets back out.

Isaac took the bracelet and gave Thom a glance, then dropped his voice down lower once the guy had moved over toward Peyton. He didn't get defensive -- even though part of him wanted to tell her to grow the fuck up already -- because that always only escalated things. "I'll be disappointed if you don't," he said evenly. "It's not like this is a party, Kay. And maybe she's nervous, all right? You're my sister, she's my girlfriend, it's not like you have to impress her. I'm not gonna make you, but I'd appreciate it if you made some effort, put it that way." He rocked up onto his knees, planted a quick kiss on her forehead, and moved to stand up. It was up to her, in the end.

Peyton set her things to the side and took her bracelet back from Thom, sliding it onto her wrist. She tried to be sneaky in her glances toward Isaac and Kaysen, quickly refocusing on the bracelet once Isaac stood. It so wasn't the time or place to even think about it, but Peyton was beginning to think Kaysen just didn't like her. Which would seem silly, given they've barely spoken, but maybe that was the problem? Or maybe Kaysen had never liked her and wouldn't that really suck, having her boyfriend's sister hate her. Crap! Peyton took a breath and looked up at Thom with a thankful smile. "Thanks. So what do you think we should do? I mean, is it going to be like something where one of us needs to be awake while the others sleep? Or are we safe enough down here that we shouldn't worry too much?" Yeah right.

Kaysen didn't look happy. She took the bracelet though, and put it back on. So far, she wasn't budging from where she'd been, especially since Thom had announced that there would be no escaping upstairs. She didn't do this shit. And anyways, if she wasn't the one who had to impress anyone, why was Peyton ignoring her? Like, she'd come down and said fuckall, and now she was over there, and they'd been being all coupley, and it wasn't fair that she couldn't separate herself out when she was feeling uncomfortable at best. She was listening, though. Keeping her ears tuned into the conversation as she attempted to kick her temper back into submission.

"We should be safe enough down here," Thom told Peyton, ignoring the atmosphere in the room. He didn't want to get involved and right now he didn't much care. He took up station at the bottom of the stairs, casually, resting on a cushion, his back against the wall. he didn't make a big thing of it, but nothing was getting past him.