Event | Landfall | Dreaming

[ironwood]

Characters: Any and every!
Date: August 10th - 31, 2013
Location: The realm of Dreaming as accessed via Sinbrilee
Situation: Dreaming is but one of the three realms and here characters are subject to their fanciful thoughts.
Warnings/Rating: Please place content warnings in subject headers!

Sinbrilee | Dreaming | Death

Life. Dreaming. Death. Three realms overlaid upon one another and yet each distinctly their own. They dwell in Life and do so live upon the back of the great turtle as those of Sinbrilee did upon the shell of his sister. However, there stand numerous arches of marble throughout the ruined city that are inlaid with runes beyond understanding. Those that live and breathe which step through those whose runes glow with faint, iridescent light tread instead into the realm of Dreaming.

Here, there exists no single defining characteristic beyond the visitor's imagination. The landscape sculpts to their individual thoughts, the events to their dreams. From a drab gray nothing to the most brilliant of displays, the senses perceive all that they wish to perceive for all that nothing here truly exists. This far from Tu Vishan, the ability to shape their surroundings is all they have, for Sinbrilee's Dreaming does not have the energy to sustain powers, only the bodies of those that dwell here.

Should two parties near, then the Mesh begins. Dreams, you see, not only can be shared, but they strive to be. These visions sculpted into reality reach out for one another and blend. They begin an exchange akin to a linking of the minds, within which one visitor can learn the other's deepest thoughts. Their limitation is but compatibility, for two minds that cannot flow upon the same current cannot hold the Mesh.

Happiness or loss, the landscape and events play out memories and fancies with a most convincing air. The mood rises and falls with the tide of the visitor's mind, detached as they are from the soothing influence of a great turtle's mind. Nothing here, however, is real; 'constructs' simply fade if taken through the archways and even the greatest scientific minds or tools will reveal nothing of its source. This is an ancient magic of an ancient realm, long practised in concealing itself from any prying.

Note: Due to the fluid and highly individual nature of Dreaming, no official subheaders will be provided in the comments of this post. Feel free to post and thread however you like, so long as the rules of Dreaming are adhered to.

Comments

[oathwalk]

Richard's surprised for only a moment. He understands what Asbel means. Richard nods and brushes hair back from his left eye. "We'll have to add it when we return."

[heartofgraces]

"Aa...I'm glad. I'm sure Sophie will agree, too." Asbel turns, and pulls him towards the shuttle door, the archway out, and he nearly collapses when Dream fades away around them out of it.

"...Are you alright?"

[oathwalk]

Richard is at his side in an instant, ready to brace him. It is by focusing on Asbel that he can stay standing. "I'm fine. What about you?" He frowns. "The blood stayed on your shirt. It seems the realm of Dreaming does not offer mere illusion."

[heartofgraces]

Asbel looks down and stifles a grown-he liked this coat, now he'd have to find and convince a Kedan who could make him a new one, that stain was never coming out, before looking back up to Richard.

"...Are you sure you're...holding up okay?"

[oathwalk]

Richard frowns—the question isn't surprising under the circumstances, yet Richard senses that it carries a weight more than the simple matter of making certain he's not too badly shaken by the dreams they went through.

Regardless, Richard reassures Asbel. "Of course. I'm perfectly fine." He strides over to an abandoned bench in the abandoned city so they can rest a moment.

[heartofgraces]

He watches Richard, searching for some sign to that. Asbel doesn't think anyone would ever actually be 'perfectly fine' after something like that. The fact that Richard shrugs it off means that it is worse than he wants to admit. He sighs, and follows Richard to the bench, sitting down next to him.

"...I...didn't know you'd been there. I'm sorry." Sorry for what? Asbel's not quite sure, but he looks down at his hands, resting palm-up in his lap. He can't begin to imagine...of course, now he doesn't have to, but that's not helping.

[oathwalk]

Ah, so that's what Asbel meant. Richard follows Asbel's gaze to his open hands. "I didn't tell you."

Sometimes, he feels it in the back of his throat, like the air has been cut out of him and if he does anything, says anything, the next breath he releases will spill everything out. Sometimes it's a tightness in his stomach and the very thought of eating makes him want to throw up. And sometimes it's a heaviness in his skull that he fights against past exhaustion because he knows what will come for him if he sleeps.

Richard speaks calmly, level and secure. "I'm not the only one who suffered at that time. We can only try not to disappoint their memories."

[heartofgraces]

"...I'm sure..." Asbel stops, swallows, tries to work through wording and fails, because he just doesn't know how. He knows he has to say something. He knows Richard well enough to know when he's avoiding things.

It was so much different, but it still resonates with a wound that's still fresher than Asbel likes to admit.

"...I'm sure somewhere, they're still...watching over us. I know you don't need the help, since you're a lot smarter than I am, but...you're not alone, Richard."

He doesn't look up, and given how his voice seems to shake slightly, it's because he doesn't trust himself not to cry, and he can't right now. Richard's pain is more important than his.

[oathwalk]

Richard inhales and exhales. He places a hand on Asbel's shoulder. "I know. And neither are you, Asbel."

[heartofgraces]

And in that moment, he's getting pulled into a hug, because Asbel doesn't know what else to say or do to get the point across. He just...holds him and tries not to sniffle into his best friend's hair.

"I should have found you sooner."

[oathwalk]

Richard is startled by the embrace. After a moment, he returns it. "If you'd tried to get into the castle, you would have died. And unlike me, you wouldn't have gotten back up again. I'm glad for when we found each other."

[heartofgraces]

"But you've still been suffering, haven't you?" Asbel holds him tighter, steels himself against the guilt.

"...I really am an idiot, to not have noticed before. You don't have to carry all this weight alone, Richard."

[oathwalk]

When the grip tightens, Richard closes his eyes. It feels almost like how Lambda held him in a dream. As with Lambda, Richard rests a hand on Asbel's head. Unlike with Lambda, Richard becomes commanding to cut through Asbel's guilt. "Asbel. Do not blame yourself for things out of your control. It's true that what happened may . . . trouble me, but I'm not constantly suffering over it. And remember, no matter how terribly everything went in those days, still, it was you who stood by my side and helped me put his soul to rest."

If Richard had not killed Cedric in that room, he never would have felt safe there. As twisted as it is, Richard knows that his uncle's death brought him peace.

He still doesn't regret how he killed his uncle. A death like that was a mercy after what Cedric had done.

[heartofgraces]

Asbel calms himself down enough to listen to Richard. He didn't argue what Richard had done there, as much as it had deeply unsettled him. He'd known from the beginning that it would only end when either Richard or Cedric was dead. But...

Asbel sighs, and pulls back enough to look at Richard. He needs to tell him, so he knows...as much as Hubert and he had needed to know.

"...He...wanted to protect you, you know. Dad did, from that kind of fighting. He was always worried. About all of us. I never even found out, until Mom gave us his diary...I just thought you should know, too."

[oathwalk]

Richard doesn't have the opportunity to mask his surprise. "He . . . did? I . . ." Richard's gaze falls. It hurts.

He remembers what he had been told. He'd heard about the succession battle between Aston and his brother. He had heard about Hubert's adoption and, with his uncle's poison fresh in his throat, he could easily guess the reason the Lhants would give their second son away. But even under Aston's care, he had only rarely spoken to the man in person.

"My father used to talk about Lord Aston sometimes. He held him in the highest regard and spoke well of his strength and loyalty. I think there weren't many men in the kingdom whom he trusted as much as he did your father. I'm grateful that I had the chance to know him."

Richard meets Asbel's gaze. He places a hand on Asbel's shoulder. "You wanted to have been there at his side, didn't you?" Richard does all he can to keep the sudden, sharp spike in his lungs out of his throat. "You wanted to have protected your father."

[heartofgraces]

"I..." Asbel pauses. He doesn't know. He doesn't know, and it bothers him. At the time, he never thought about protecting his father. At the time, he'd never even considered the fact Aston might die.

Live on, he hears Cornell said, but the last words he exhanged with his own father were anger and condemnation. Asbel's brow furrows, and he closes his eyes. His throat feels tight and burning.

"...I just wish I could have...spoken to him, one last time. The last things I ever said to him were in anger. I,I never even wrote to him, for seven years. He did so much, to keep us safe...and I never even thought about what would happen when he died." He has to stop, has to swallow, because his throat is thick but he can't stop now.

"I should have at least been there."

[oathwalk]

"Asbel . . ." Richard watches the little physical give-aways. Not that Asbel has ever been any good at hiding things. "I'm sorry that you lost him before you could speak with him again. But I think . . ." He breathes in. "You said your father was always protecting you. That's why I don't believe for a moment that he would have wanted you to bear witness to his death."

When did breathing become so difficult?

[heartofgraces]

"He was always...protecting all of us. You, Hubert...even Cheria and Sophie..." His voice cracks, and Asbel's head drops, staring down as his shoulders start to shake. No, keep it together.

"I never understood anything at all, not until it was too late. And now that I do, I...can't tell him anything. I wasn't...I wasn't even angry anymore. But I couldn't tell him."

It's suffocating, how much he never got to say. How much he never did tell his father. He never did tell him after everything, after all he'd done....that he was still his dad. That he still loved him.

[oathwalk]

Richard talks in a gentle voice, coaxing out his friend. "In his diary, did you read anything from those seven years?"

[heartofgraces]

"...Yes. That's...how we found out about everything." He doesn't look up, and that...was definitely another sniffle. This is an old, ugly wound that's never going to heal quite right, isn't it?

[oathwalk]

Some injuries are like that; Richard knows it as well as any. He treads as lightly as he can. "Did he say anything about your departure—and about how he thought of you after it?"

[heartofgraces]

Asbel only nods, because he doesn't trust himself to speak right now. It had been more for Hubert's benefit than his, but still.

[oathwalk]

He pauses before asking the follow-up question. "And—what did he say?"

[heartofgraces]

"It...he wrote..." Asbel struggles with the words, but swallows.

"...He believed in us. In both of us. He always did. "

[oathwalk]

"Then . . . though you never had the chance to say the words, perhaps he knew the things you wanted to say to him."