[media] brand new hero
So! I posted a fic, Brand New Hero, yesterday.
What I didn't bother to mention in posting it was all the media that goes alongside it! I'm going to talk a little bit about making some of it, and just kinda showcase that stuff for all y'all to see if you don't feel like being bothered with the accompanying story.
If you, uh, haven't read the fic and are planning to, you may want to go do that now. This post has spoilers, if that matters to you? (There's some bonus scenes, too. Two were put in comments, and one is new in this post. 8) )
Enjoy!
... So the dog is Pete and the mouse is Brendon. The reason I drew Brendon as a mouse? ... Because chopsticknoodle calls him Mouse all the time, because of ONE PICTURE where he looked sort of like a mouse. Haha. The idea's stuck in my head, and I couldn't resist doing something with it. (But then I figured, okay, drawing Brendon as a mouse ... I have to draw Pete as something too! I figured he'd choose a dog for himself, for the stupidity and the loyalty and the blind trust. You know, kicked puppies and that kind of thing.
So Brendon does a lot of audio work in this fic, AND there's a mixtape involved, so ... headphones! Heyyyy.
The construction of the case itself was copied from the design of another artist, who was at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago this weekend. I cut and scored it myself, and the illustrations are my own, but. Gotta give credit where credit is due. I was going to just do a folded paper case, but then I realized I'd forgotten how to do one of the key folds and no amount of directions were able to help me! It was a v sad time in my life, you guys.
Anyway, so yeah, the case is made out of cut up cardstock. There's no adhesives anywhere, and it is just a nice cozy little home for a CD. \o/
neery wanted a bigger picture of the CD case so she could use it as a wallpaper. I ... decided to dick around in Photoshop and make it into a wallpaper. 8)
And this next bit is a huge-ass spoiler, again, just in case you haven't read and decide you really care or something I guess. ???
So. Pete makes a mixtape, because he at once thinks he isn't good enough AND thinks he and Brendon'd be good for each other. No, he doesn't know how that works either.
Anyway, here, the mix: yourvoicesosmoothandsweet.
Stars of Track and Field - Movies of Antarctica - This track is more to set the kind of melancholy mood, more than anything. Starts things off on a relatively melancholy, visual tone, I think.
trade and touch for time; the camera catches all. it's over now
Muse - Map of the Problematique - Keeping with the kind of eerie sound of the track before it, this one knocks the whole thing into a slightly more defined and edgy place. It's Muse, what can you do?
I want to be free from desolation and despair, and I feel like everything I saw is being swept away. well I refuse to let you go.
Regina Spektor - Better - Edging a little bit away from the desolate loneliness into something ... still lonely, but. Wanting to help? (and sort of, if you don't let anyone get to know you, then of course no one is going to know you and you're going to be lonely.)
If I kiss you where it’s sore… will you feel better…will you feel anything at all…?
K-Os - Born to Run - they tried, it didn't work, maybe they should try again. 'either you're brave or you're broken-hearted' -- you can either go for it, you can try, or you can give up. eh? If the sky would fall would it take that to bring us together? or do we have to start all over again?
Damien Rice - The Rat Within the Grain - ... I jacked this off the soundtrack to another fic, no lie, but it fit with what Pete's trying to say? So, uhm. UHM. SORRY OTHER AUTHOR oh god i don't even remember who it was (it was a brendon/spencer fic though. sort of.) -- ANYWAY. So, things are fucked up, something's gone wrong. Pete figures it's his own damn fault. If he'd have been there, maybe --! So. You know. Brendon can go off and be with somebody else if he wants. D: Pete doesn't want Brendon to worry or anything, he just ... wishes Brendon wanted him. You know. This one is maybe a little resentful.
I only wanted to be wonderful, in wonderful is true, in truth I only really wanted to be wanted by you.
Reel Big Fish - Brand New Hero - Title song! The chorus doesn't reall fit, but the verses? Hi, they are perfect. ... Pete's got big grand ideas, but doesn't do a lot with them. He's fucked up and knows it; he lets people down. He wishes he were more worthwhile, but really, no. ... Hahahaha, this is the LEAST OPTIMISTIC MIXTAPE TRYING TO WIN SOMEONE BACK EVER.
Always talkin' but i never say a lot, and I'll blow it if i get another shot, cause it seems like no matter what I've got it feels like it's nothing; I feel like I'm nothing.
504Plan - A Friday Night in D Major - It's right after Brand New Hero that the mix starts getting borderline optimistic. Sort of? Not quite, but it's closer to it than anything so far.
These are words we speak as friends. All these things we share together will be of comfort in the end. All our thoughts are folding into one. These are dreams that we can share.
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - This song's a bit of a mix; it's mostly optimistic, but there's these sort of ominous corners to it.
What a curious life we have found here tonight. There is music that sounds from the street. There are lights in the clouds.
Ben Lee - Float On - Cover of the Modest Mouse song, natch. This version's even a little sweeter and gentler than the original, and just fit better sonically with the rest of the mix, so here it is. Sometimes you mess up, sometimes life's shitty, but ... life goes on. Sometimes things turn out alright.
I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh, what did I say? Well, you just laughed it off, it was all okay.
Death Cab for Cutie - The Sound of Settling - Pretty self explanatory when you listen to it, I think?
I'll sit in wonder of every love that could have been, if I'd only thought of something charming to say.
504Plan - Kissing Old Friends - welp
Look at this, I've gone and broke down. Another miss, and anyone can see me laughing now. Another failure, I've bought myself.
And, just for the hell of it, a few bonus snippets.
first, a rough cut of the first couple of scenes.
second, some backstory with ryan and keltie.
in which spencer calls ryan, and also, ryan and keltie are precious
Spencer says, "Hey, Ryan."
"Spence! What's up?" Ryan says, "You haven't forgotten how to use the phone again, have you?"
"Dude, that was when I was, like, six. Shut up."
"Okay."
Spencer says, "So I think I kind of took advantage of someone."
"Hmm," Ryan says, because he doesn't think Spencer really wants him to say much else.
"I feel pretty fucking terrible about it."
That clicks somewhere in the back of Ryan's head, though. "Spence," he says warily. "You didn't get some girl drunk, did you? That's fucked up, man. I can't help you."
"What! No! Ryan."
"So what did you do?" Ryan says.
"Well." Spencer says, "Look, never mind. I didn't date-rape anybody, okay?"
"Just making sure," Ryan says. "Look, whatever you did, just apologize."
"I don't know if that's even going to work," Spencer says. "I thought of that already."
"Hm."
"I'm supposed to be the sane one!"
Ryan says, "Must be tough, not having all the answers."
"You can be such a dick, Ryan Ross."
"Hey, now."
-
Later, Ryan says, in his standard deadpan monotone, "Hey, Keltie, want to get drunk and have totally exploitative sex?"
"Sure," Keltie says, laughing. "Why not. As long as expolitative doesn't mean you're into, like, snuff or furries or something."
"Well ..."
"Ryan!"
wherein pete wentz hyperventilates and asks patrick stumph for advice
"Fuck, fuck," Pete says, fisting his shirt in his hands, then letting go of it, fidgeting with his hair. "Patrick. What the fuck am I going to -- I can't just put it in a plastic case. He's a fucking artist, man, he -- I want to impress him. Fuck!"
Patrick says, "Well, the first thing you can do is calm down. Then you can let me know what the fuck you're talking about."
"Oh. The -- CD I was going to have you help me with? Yeah. I just realized I don't know what the fuck to do for a cover. I can't draw. I couldn't design my way out of a paper bag. And he's really good, and I'm not, but I want to -- I don't know."
Patrick says, "Pete. Calm down."
"Okay."
"No. Seriously. Breathe, dude."
Pete breathes in. Pete breathes out. He breathes in; he breathes out.
"Slow and steady wins the race," Patrick says, laughing a little.
"Okay," Pete says. "Just. Okay! So. So look. There's -- you remember that guy I was telling you about?"
"The kid you made up constellations with?"
"Yeah," Pete says. "So. He found somebody better, I guess. And. Just -- look, I think, like. If he gave me a chance, we could fall in love and shit, you know? And as it is, I mean. He's just a really awesome guy. And the sex was good. So."
"So," Patrick says.
"So I need to find a way to impress him."
"Dude, you should probably avoid anybody who needs you to prove anything to them like that."
"He never said it, though. I just figure, you know. So -- help?"
"Yeah, okay," Patrick says. "As long as you're not expecting me to work miracles or anything."
"You always do," Pete says. "So, so, okay, now the problem is -- what do I do about the cover?"
"You could try asking The Butcher."
"Oh!" Pete says. "Butcher! Shit, I don't know him very well. But I know Will. Maybe I could get Will to help me convince Butcher to help with that. Dude, that'd be fucking sweet." He says, "Or, hey, I could get Gerard to do it, maybe. He owes me."
"He's also famous now," Patrick says. "And on tour."
"Oh. Right." Pete says, "Well."
wherein brendon urie helps pete
Pete calls at twelve fifteen in the afternoon on Wednesday, and the ringing of a phone -- doesn't fuck up Brendon's recording, exactly, but it's an unexpected element. He picks up and lets the tape keep recording.
"Hey, 'sup?"
"Brendon," Pete says. "Can you -- no, never mind."
"What?"
Pete hangs up.
Brendon calls back.
"Hi," Pete says. "Sorry about that. Don't worry about it, it's cool."
"No, seriously, what's going on?"
"Nothing. I just. I'm out of milk."
"What?" Brendon says. "Do you ... need me to buy you milk?"
"No. It's cool. You don't have to."
Brendon says, "Skim, whole or two percent?"
"Skim." Pete says, "But you don't have to."
"Right. Of course not."
So Brendon shows up with a half gallon of skim milk. Pete's house is really, really dark, especially since it's not even one in the afternoon yet on a bright, sunny day. The sky is clear, birds are chirping, and Pete's apartment is dark and quiet and smells sort of like burnt toast.
Pete says, "You seriously didn't have to do that, dude. I would have lived without milk." He wouldn't have gone to get it on his own, is what he's saying.
Brendon says, "But your cereal would have been so lonely! You can't have cereal without milk, dude. It's wrong. Sick and wrong."
Pete says, "So I don't think I've slept for two days."
"Dude. Go to bed. Stop drinking caffeine."
"I haven't," Pete says. "I just can't sleep. I'm. I don't know."
"You want to go somewhere?"
"Not really."
Brendon says, "Oh, hey, you know what. I'll be right back."
"Fuck, I'm sorry. You can just go. If you want."
"No, dude! You can come with me if you want. I swear, though, on my dead grandmother's honor. And she had a lot of honor, dude, true story -- seriously. You can come."
It's another half hour before they get out the door, because Pete is dithering and reluctant and making sure he has everything, checking his pockets and the contents of his apartment over and over.
At the store, Pete says, "What do you need that much construction paper for? I didn't know they even made it that wide."
"It's a surprise," Brendon says.
Pete says, "It's a surprise that's taking a really long time." He's twitchy and antsy and looks sort of ill and -- "Can we go home? Or can I. Just."
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Brendon says.
Pete says, "Sorry. They." His voice goes small and quiet. "They had to call in my prescription? They were out and it's been a couple days and they haven't called, so. Or. Maybe they did, I haven't really checked my phone."
Brendon hurries it up at the store. He drives back slow, though, to ease Pete's nerves.
Brendon pulls the curtain away from one of the windows and draws up the blinds, letting light in. At least Pete's apartment is clean. Soon as he's got it open, though, he starts taping the huge sheet of black paper to the window.
Pete says, "You couldn't have just left the window shut?"
"No, hold up," Brendon says. "Hey, this wall over here. Can I take these pictures down for now?"
"I guess," Pete says.
So Brendon takes the pictures down, then goes back to the window and cuts a circle out of the paper. He says, "Here, look."
Pete says, "So there's a hole in the paper."
"No, like, turn around and look."
Pete turns around. He looks.
He can't figure out what he's seeing at first; light and movement, in faint colors. Yellow is strongest. He tilts his head to the side and keeps watching and, as his eyes adjust, it resolves a little more clearly.
Brendon says, "Sometimes, when I can't -- like, hey. If you don't want to deal with the world. You can just deal with it this way?"
Pete's got a ground floor apartment, set back from a busy street but only separated from it by a few spindly trees and a stretch of grass. It takes him a while to figure out that what he's seeing is the road outside, just turned upside down so it's near the floor. Up higher, towards the ceiling, is an out-of-focus greyish-green patch of the grass. What helps him finally figure out what he's seeing is the schoolbus that goes by upside down, bright yellow but obvious and identifiable.
"Hey, see?" Brendon says. "So whenever it's light out, you can check out what's going on outside! It's pretty sneaky. Like a low-tech spy camera.
"Huh," Pete says.
He sits down on the couch, curls up and watches the outside world go by in reverse, everything turned upside down. It's so quiet. Pete realizes all he can hear is his breathing, so he makes a conscious effort to breathe more quietly.
Brendon curls up next to him, says, "I don't know why, but camera obscura always make me feel better, you know?"
They sit like that for hours, until Pete finally says, "So you want to go get dinner somewhere?"
"Yeah, sure," Brendon says. "I'm kinda craving some Chinese food; I don't know about you."
"Oh, good call."
What I didn't bother to mention in posting it was all the media that goes alongside it! I'm going to talk a little bit about making some of it, and just kinda showcase that stuff for all y'all to see if you don't feel like being bothered with the accompanying story.
If you, uh, haven't read the fic and are planning to, you may want to go do that now. This post has spoilers, if that matters to you? (There's some bonus scenes, too. Two were put in comments, and one is new in this post. 8) )
Enjoy!
... So the dog is Pete and the mouse is Brendon. The reason I drew Brendon as a mouse? ... Because chopsticknoodle calls him Mouse all the time, because of ONE PICTURE where he looked sort of like a mouse. Haha. The idea's stuck in my head, and I couldn't resist doing something with it. (But then I figured, okay, drawing Brendon as a mouse ... I have to draw Pete as something too! I figured he'd choose a dog for himself, for the stupidity and the loyalty and the blind trust. You know, kicked puppies and that kind of thing.
So Brendon does a lot of audio work in this fic, AND there's a mixtape involved, so ... headphones! Heyyyy.
The construction of the case itself was copied from the design of another artist, who was at the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago this weekend. I cut and scored it myself, and the illustrations are my own, but. Gotta give credit where credit is due. I was going to just do a folded paper case, but then I realized I'd forgotten how to do one of the key folds and no amount of directions were able to help me! It was a v sad time in my life, you guys.
Anyway, so yeah, the case is made out of cut up cardstock. There's no adhesives anywhere, and it is just a nice cozy little home for a CD. \o/
neery wanted a bigger picture of the CD case so she could use it as a wallpaper. I ... decided to dick around in Photoshop and make it into a wallpaper. 8)
And this next bit is a huge-ass spoiler, again, just in case you haven't read and decide you really care or something I guess. ???
So. Pete makes a mixtape, because he at once thinks he isn't good enough AND thinks he and Brendon'd be good for each other. No, he doesn't know how that works either.
Anyway, here, the mix: yourvoicesosmoothandsweet.
Stars of Track and Field - Movies of Antarctica - This track is more to set the kind of melancholy mood, more than anything. Starts things off on a relatively melancholy, visual tone, I think.
trade and touch for time; the camera catches all. it's over now
Muse - Map of the Problematique - Keeping with the kind of eerie sound of the track before it, this one knocks the whole thing into a slightly more defined and edgy place. It's Muse, what can you do?
I want to be free from desolation and despair, and I feel like everything I saw is being swept away. well I refuse to let you go.
Regina Spektor - Better - Edging a little bit away from the desolate loneliness into something ... still lonely, but. Wanting to help? (and sort of, if you don't let anyone get to know you, then of course no one is going to know you and you're going to be lonely.)
If I kiss you where it’s sore… will you feel better…will you feel anything at all…?
K-Os - Born to Run - they tried, it didn't work, maybe they should try again. 'either you're brave or you're broken-hearted' -- you can either go for it, you can try, or you can give up. eh? If the sky would fall would it take that to bring us together? or do we have to start all over again?
Damien Rice - The Rat Within the Grain - ... I jacked this off the soundtrack to another fic, no lie, but it fit with what Pete's trying to say? So, uhm. UHM. SORRY OTHER AUTHOR oh god i don't even remember who it was (it was a brendon/spencer fic though. sort of.) -- ANYWAY. So, things are fucked up, something's gone wrong. Pete figures it's his own damn fault. If he'd have been there, maybe --! So. You know. Brendon can go off and be with somebody else if he wants. D: Pete doesn't want Brendon to worry or anything, he just ... wishes Brendon wanted him. You know. This one is maybe a little resentful.
I only wanted to be wonderful, in wonderful is true, in truth I only really wanted to be wanted by you.
Reel Big Fish - Brand New Hero - Title song! The chorus doesn't reall fit, but the verses? Hi, they are perfect. ... Pete's got big grand ideas, but doesn't do a lot with them. He's fucked up and knows it; he lets people down. He wishes he were more worthwhile, but really, no. ... Hahahaha, this is the LEAST OPTIMISTIC MIXTAPE TRYING TO WIN SOMEONE BACK EVER.
Always talkin' but i never say a lot, and I'll blow it if i get another shot, cause it seems like no matter what I've got it feels like it's nothing; I feel like I'm nothing.
504Plan - A Friday Night in D Major - It's right after Brand New Hero that the mix starts getting borderline optimistic. Sort of? Not quite, but it's closer to it than anything so far.
These are words we speak as friends. All these things we share together will be of comfort in the end. All our thoughts are folding into one. These are dreams that we can share.
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea - This song's a bit of a mix; it's mostly optimistic, but there's these sort of ominous corners to it.
What a curious life we have found here tonight. There is music that sounds from the street. There are lights in the clouds.
Ben Lee - Float On - Cover of the Modest Mouse song, natch. This version's even a little sweeter and gentler than the original, and just fit better sonically with the rest of the mix, so here it is. Sometimes you mess up, sometimes life's shitty, but ... life goes on. Sometimes things turn out alright.
I ran my mouth off a bit too much, oh, what did I say? Well, you just laughed it off, it was all okay.
Death Cab for Cutie - The Sound of Settling - Pretty self explanatory when you listen to it, I think?
I'll sit in wonder of every love that could have been, if I'd only thought of something charming to say.
504Plan - Kissing Old Friends - welp
Look at this, I've gone and broke down. Another miss, and anyone can see me laughing now. Another failure, I've bought myself.
And, just for the hell of it, a few bonus snippets.
first, a rough cut of the first couple of scenes.
second, some backstory with ryan and keltie.
in which spencer calls ryan, and also, ryan and keltie are precious
Spencer says, "Hey, Ryan."
"Spence! What's up?" Ryan says, "You haven't forgotten how to use the phone again, have you?"
"Dude, that was when I was, like, six. Shut up."
"Okay."
Spencer says, "So I think I kind of took advantage of someone."
"Hmm," Ryan says, because he doesn't think Spencer really wants him to say much else.
"I feel pretty fucking terrible about it."
That clicks somewhere in the back of Ryan's head, though. "Spence," he says warily. "You didn't get some girl drunk, did you? That's fucked up, man. I can't help you."
"What! No! Ryan."
"So what did you do?" Ryan says.
"Well." Spencer says, "Look, never mind. I didn't date-rape anybody, okay?"
"Just making sure," Ryan says. "Look, whatever you did, just apologize."
"I don't know if that's even going to work," Spencer says. "I thought of that already."
"Hm."
"I'm supposed to be the sane one!"
Ryan says, "Must be tough, not having all the answers."
"You can be such a dick, Ryan Ross."
"Hey, now."
-
Later, Ryan says, in his standard deadpan monotone, "Hey, Keltie, want to get drunk and have totally exploitative sex?"
"Sure," Keltie says, laughing. "Why not. As long as expolitative doesn't mean you're into, like, snuff or furries or something."
"Well ..."
"Ryan!"
wherein pete wentz hyperventilates and asks patrick stumph for advice
"Fuck, fuck," Pete says, fisting his shirt in his hands, then letting go of it, fidgeting with his hair. "Patrick. What the fuck am I going to -- I can't just put it in a plastic case. He's a fucking artist, man, he -- I want to impress him. Fuck!"
Patrick says, "Well, the first thing you can do is calm down. Then you can let me know what the fuck you're talking about."
"Oh. The -- CD I was going to have you help me with? Yeah. I just realized I don't know what the fuck to do for a cover. I can't draw. I couldn't design my way out of a paper bag. And he's really good, and I'm not, but I want to -- I don't know."
Patrick says, "Pete. Calm down."
"Okay."
"No. Seriously. Breathe, dude."
Pete breathes in. Pete breathes out. He breathes in; he breathes out.
"Slow and steady wins the race," Patrick says, laughing a little.
"Okay," Pete says. "Just. Okay! So. So look. There's -- you remember that guy I was telling you about?"
"The kid you made up constellations with?"
"Yeah," Pete says. "So. He found somebody better, I guess. And. Just -- look, I think, like. If he gave me a chance, we could fall in love and shit, you know? And as it is, I mean. He's just a really awesome guy. And the sex was good. So."
"So," Patrick says.
"So I need to find a way to impress him."
"Dude, you should probably avoid anybody who needs you to prove anything to them like that."
"He never said it, though. I just figure, you know. So -- help?"
"Yeah, okay," Patrick says. "As long as you're not expecting me to work miracles or anything."
"You always do," Pete says. "So, so, okay, now the problem is -- what do I do about the cover?"
"You could try asking The Butcher."
"Oh!" Pete says. "Butcher! Shit, I don't know him very well. But I know Will. Maybe I could get Will to help me convince Butcher to help with that. Dude, that'd be fucking sweet." He says, "Or, hey, I could get Gerard to do it, maybe. He owes me."
"He's also famous now," Patrick says. "And on tour."
"Oh. Right." Pete says, "Well."
wherein brendon urie helps pete
Pete calls at twelve fifteen in the afternoon on Wednesday, and the ringing of a phone -- doesn't fuck up Brendon's recording, exactly, but it's an unexpected element. He picks up and lets the tape keep recording.
"Hey, 'sup?"
"Brendon," Pete says. "Can you -- no, never mind."
"What?"
Pete hangs up.
Brendon calls back.
"Hi," Pete says. "Sorry about that. Don't worry about it, it's cool."
"No, seriously, what's going on?"
"Nothing. I just. I'm out of milk."
"What?" Brendon says. "Do you ... need me to buy you milk?"
"No. It's cool. You don't have to."
Brendon says, "Skim, whole or two percent?"
"Skim." Pete says, "But you don't have to."
"Right. Of course not."
So Brendon shows up with a half gallon of skim milk. Pete's house is really, really dark, especially since it's not even one in the afternoon yet on a bright, sunny day. The sky is clear, birds are chirping, and Pete's apartment is dark and quiet and smells sort of like burnt toast.
Pete says, "You seriously didn't have to do that, dude. I would have lived without milk." He wouldn't have gone to get it on his own, is what he's saying.
Brendon says, "But your cereal would have been so lonely! You can't have cereal without milk, dude. It's wrong. Sick and wrong."
Pete says, "So I don't think I've slept for two days."
"Dude. Go to bed. Stop drinking caffeine."
"I haven't," Pete says. "I just can't sleep. I'm. I don't know."
"You want to go somewhere?"
"Not really."
Brendon says, "Oh, hey, you know what. I'll be right back."
"Fuck, I'm sorry. You can just go. If you want."
"No, dude! You can come with me if you want. I swear, though, on my dead grandmother's honor. And she had a lot of honor, dude, true story -- seriously. You can come."
It's another half hour before they get out the door, because Pete is dithering and reluctant and making sure he has everything, checking his pockets and the contents of his apartment over and over.
At the store, Pete says, "What do you need that much construction paper for? I didn't know they even made it that wide."
"It's a surprise," Brendon says.
Pete says, "It's a surprise that's taking a really long time." He's twitchy and antsy and looks sort of ill and -- "Can we go home? Or can I. Just."
"Hey, hey, it's okay," Brendon says.
Pete says, "Sorry. They." His voice goes small and quiet. "They had to call in my prescription? They were out and it's been a couple days and they haven't called, so. Or. Maybe they did, I haven't really checked my phone."
Brendon hurries it up at the store. He drives back slow, though, to ease Pete's nerves.
Brendon pulls the curtain away from one of the windows and draws up the blinds, letting light in. At least Pete's apartment is clean. Soon as he's got it open, though, he starts taping the huge sheet of black paper to the window.
Pete says, "You couldn't have just left the window shut?"
"No, hold up," Brendon says. "Hey, this wall over here. Can I take these pictures down for now?"
"I guess," Pete says.
So Brendon takes the pictures down, then goes back to the window and cuts a circle out of the paper. He says, "Here, look."
Pete says, "So there's a hole in the paper."
"No, like, turn around and look."
Pete turns around. He looks.
He can't figure out what he's seeing at first; light and movement, in faint colors. Yellow is strongest. He tilts his head to the side and keeps watching and, as his eyes adjust, it resolves a little more clearly.
Brendon says, "Sometimes, when I can't -- like, hey. If you don't want to deal with the world. You can just deal with it this way?"
Pete's got a ground floor apartment, set back from a busy street but only separated from it by a few spindly trees and a stretch of grass. It takes him a while to figure out that what he's seeing is the road outside, just turned upside down so it's near the floor. Up higher, towards the ceiling, is an out-of-focus greyish-green patch of the grass. What helps him finally figure out what he's seeing is the schoolbus that goes by upside down, bright yellow but obvious and identifiable.
"Hey, see?" Brendon says. "So whenever it's light out, you can check out what's going on outside! It's pretty sneaky. Like a low-tech spy camera.
"Huh," Pete says.
He sits down on the couch, curls up and watches the outside world go by in reverse, everything turned upside down. It's so quiet. Pete realizes all he can hear is his breathing, so he makes a conscious effort to breathe more quietly.
Brendon curls up next to him, says, "I don't know why, but camera obscura always make me feel better, you know?"
They sit like that for hours, until Pete finally says, "So you want to go get dinner somewhere?"
"Yeah, sure," Brendon says. "I'm kinda craving some Chinese food; I don't know about you."
"Oh, good call."