#supernatural au cabfare version

[vagrantblvrd]

I love things like this so much?

But also?

FAHC AU where something similar applies, because reasons?

Could be supernatural/urban fantasy/general AU?

Early days for Ryan in Los Santos and he gets sent on a job and his beater of a car maybe kind of gets wrecked or set on fire/blown up in the process. (It happens, okay. Don’t judge.)

There aren’t any cars he can aggressively borrow nearby and he’s too tired to trek out to the main roads to do so. Figures hey, why not call a cab? (Kind of embarrassing because Vagabond? But whatever. It’s been a long night and he still has to deal with insurance and the whatnot, so.

The first couple of cab companies hang up on him once he gives the address. One straight up laughs before they hand up. Someone curses him out and then hangs up.

It’s the last one that bothers to hear him out, seems a little hesitant but he supposes he sounds a little at the end of his rope at that point.

The person he’s talking to tells him to hold on for a moment and they’ll check if there’s a driver willing to go out there this time of night.

Ryan doesn’t get it? But sure, okay. Maybe this one will pan out so he waits. They don’t even put him on hold, is the thing, so he can hear the person on the phone yelling to the cab drivers asking if anyone wants to make double their fare (Ryan may have tried to sweeten the pot a little) and he can hear the responses.

They vary from derisive laughter to angry yelling (???) to this short pause and then someone distinctly yelling fuck it, why not and then the person Ryan’s talking to tells him they’re sending a cab to get him before hanging up.

He waits around a bit, notices there are these weird little cold spots all over the place as he does. Weird noises. Flickering lights and shredded awnings that move without a breeze.

All the typical things and shrugs it off because hey, Los Santos is kind of a weird city to start with, you know?

Half an hour or so goes by before he hears the cab, sees it cruising along the street, driver side window halfway rolled down and the guy behind the wheel - kid, really, clearly searching for Ryan.

And, like an idiot, Ryan steps out in front of him and, scaring the poor cab driver who just stares at him like he’s an idiot.

Ryan’s still wearing the mask - Halloween’s in a few days and, again, Los Santos is just weird enough that no one will care - and the cab driver puts the car in park and gets out.

Looks around them for a moment, eyes narrowed before he snorts and walks to to Ryan.

And then he pokes him in the chest.

Pokes him, what the hell???

“Oh, good,” the kid says, and flashes him this smile. “You’re real.”

Ryan...has no damn idea what to make of that so he just tips his head to the side and the kid laughs, gesturing to Ryan to get in so they can get the fuck out of there already.

Tells him about the ghost fares and such the cab companies used to get before they instituted new policies and such. Chatters on about it and tells him stories he’s heard from the people he works with while Ryan is just sitting in the backseat like what the hell kind of city did I come to?

Can’t decide if the kid’s fucking with him or not and a little leery of being kicked out of the cab in the middle of nowhere so he keeps his mouth shut.

When they get to the address Ryan gave the kid he turns around and after the stories he’s been telling Ryan he's half expecting him to be a ghost himself. (All those stories Ryan heard growing up. One with hitchhikers who are the ghost or the driver who picks them up being a ghost, all those.)

But no, no.

Just this kid with this Boston accent and brightly dyed hair.

“Don’t know what you were doing out there and I don’t care,” the kid says, proving he’s not a complete idiot as he holds out a business card. “But if you ever get stuck out that way again give me a call and I’ll come get you.”

He grins at Ryan and happily takes the fare money, tips him this little two-finger salute as he drives off and Ryan watches him go because bar none, that was the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to him.

Ryan heads home, place a couple of streets over because paranoid, and after a shower and change of clothes gets on his computer to look up Los Santos’ ghost stories to read up on as he makes himself something to eat.

Finds the ones about the cab companies getting stiffed by ghosts (???) and other places of note.

Tragic deaths and other unexplained things and sits back to let all that sink because it’s a lot, okay?

And then he thinks about the phenomena he experienced for himself out there - or maybe they were coincidences or fluke of nature or who the hell knows.

Can’t quite shake that feeling he was being watched, though. That he thought he could almost hear people talking around him when he knows for sure he was alone out there. Just the recent dead and him, and okay some rats and mice and other gutter dwellers.

Shakes it all off because he’s tired and it’s been a long night - did he mention that before? - and it was probably his mind playing tricks on him because clearly ghosts aren’t real.

Fast forward a few years and other moments and situations Ryan can’t explain away, so he doesn’t try to. Just sets them off to the side and pretends he doesn’t know what the hell any of it was and joins up with the crew or whatever.

Realizes they all have their little ghost story moments here in sunny Los Santos and doesn’t volunteer any of his own because no thanks?

But then Geoff brings in this kid from B-Team, right?

Hair’s dyed a different color from when they met and his accent’s softer now, but the smile is still the same.

Ryan’s never needed to call the number on the card he gave him way back when, but he kept it all the same. Tucked it away in his wallet for safekeeping and almost forgot about it.

(Considered calling when he had those ghost story/unexplained moments because there was something to the way the kid talked about that stuff that said he knew something about it, you know? But for whatever reason he never did.)

And Jeremy, because of course it’s Jeremy, grins like an idiot when he sees Ryan.

Remembers that fare he took years and years ago now, idiot who got stranded in the heart of spooky central (nickname the cabbies he worked with had for it) and goes over to Ryan and fucking pokes him again to the confusion/consternation of the rest of the crew.

“Still real, huh?” he asks, cheeky as hell because there are rumors now that say the Vagabond is just another spirit haunting Los Santos.

Vengeful and all that, lock your doors if you see him.

Ryan sighs, because he gets so much shit from the others for that and it looks like Jeremy’s not going to be any different. (Wouldn’t expect anything else, really.)

The other are a bit ??? when Ryan doesn’t do anything about being poked - honestly, they don’t know what they’re expecting because this situation hasn’t come up before, but who knows, right? - they dismiss the whole thing as just another weird Ryan Thing.

And when they find out Ryan and Jeremy (sort of) know one another/met before neither of them explain it? Just let everyone’s imaginations run wild and play along when someone proposes possible scenarios that range from working together for a crew to former former government agents/spec ops team and the completely ridiculous.

They are pretty fond of that last one though, and since they make a damn good team start calling themselves the Battle Buddies and just kind of never stop?

And yeah, okay. There are times they get into situations where ghosts and the whatnot feature and Jeremy may or may not punch a few here and there.

Might know more than he lets on when the crew steals a cursed artifact from some rich asshole while they’re also stealing other shinies from him.

Might get into the kind of situation where he has to bail the others out of trouble with some supernatural being or other. (Something to do with his true love and Ryan in trouble and forced confessions and Ryan all :O because the Pining he’s been doing all this time is mutual???)

All that good stuff and just shrugs because it’s this whole Dooley family business kind of thing, no big deal guys, really.

(I kind of lost the plot here, but you get the idea I’m sure.)