ᴛᴡᴏ ✄ sweet things

[distorting]

[He's sitting cross-legged on a bed in a room that isn't very well lit. The only light that's coming in is from a nearby window, but even then, the dark seems to be crowding the room. Tate seems to stand out from the dark, his blond, messy hair being the only thing that really makes him stand out in the first place.

There is a long quiet that feels awkward and almost wrong as he slowly gets up from the bed to look around the room. He looks familiar enough with it, like he's been there for his whole life, but there's something in his eyes that suggests a longing for something more. It's like nostalgia had taken over him completely. He looks perplexed for a moment, staring down at the bed sheets before looking up abruptly, straight at a memory, or perhaps someone who's not supposed to be in his dream at all. ]

I'm sick of being here.

Comments

[hasevolved]

[At first, she doesn't realize that she's in a dream again. After all, she knows the setting all too well... The house, this room. But, since she's started having these bizarre, shared dreams with strangers in them, she hasn't seen anyone that she knew from her waking hours. Until now.

Violet stands in the doorway of the room in Tate's dream, somewhat breathless. She didn't expect to see him here... Why should she? But, there he was. It takes her a moment, but after he speaks to seemingly no one, she replies.]

Me, too.

[She says it quietly, her hand gripping the door frame.]

[distorting]

[Tate's first reaction is silence. He had wanted her here, but not in that way. Maybe in these strange dreams that seem to have taken over his life, but not actually here. It wasn't right. She didn't deserve this -- being trapped. He swallows, a pained look crossing his features. He wants to stand still, to tell her to leave while she can because she shouldn't -- couldn't be here with him. It wasn't right. She should be with her family, not in a trap, even if she needed his company.

But he can't. He can't hold himself back from rushing over to her and capturing her in a tight embrace, one hand pressed protectively against her back while the other reached up to entangle itself in her hair, cradling the back of her head while he tried not to smother her in his shirt.

Finally, after the quiet, he manages a choked whisper,]

Violet.

[hasevolved]

[It's really him, then. In this moment, in this dream. With everything that had been happening in the real "murder house," she knows what a gift this is. That he's here, with her, in this place... without everything else to fuck it up.

She takes a long breath as he embraces her. Violet's arms curl reflexively up and on his shoulders, as if they were meant to be there all along. He was that odd missing piece of her, wasn't he? The dark, enigmatic young man who had won her over with classic rock and black roses. Violet takes another long breath, pressing herself against him, as if trying to leave no space.]

Tate. You're really here, aren't you. In this whacked-out dream...

[distorting]

[He nods, giving her a squeeze before he pulls away to look her in the eye. He had expected anything but her showing up, but in a weird way, he enjoyed having her trapped here with him, even if that was its own kind of twisted.]

I'm sorry you have to be here.

[He did feel a tinge of jealousy thinking about how other people were allowed into her dreams. He could care less about his now that she was here with him; all he wanted was to keep her safe.]

[hasevolved]

No, I--

[She looks up into his face, too, as if searching for something. Then, she just shakes her head, hands moving down to his upper arms.]

It's okay. I mean, we both need a break from that place. No doubt about that. With Dad totally oblivious to everything, and Mom in the... hospital...

[Violet doesn't borrow Hayden's phrasing: "loony bin." After all, it's partly her own fault that her mother was deemed crazy.]

This is like a vacation. A trippy vacation with lots of weird people in it.

[distorting]

[He manages a small smile. Even if it was like a vacation, it still wasn't the kind of vacation he would prefer, especially with Violet.]

Some of them have a lot of strange stories to tell. I met a guy that could travel back in time.

[He's trying to make light of the situation.]

[hasevolved]

[She quirks a brow.] Seriously?

[There's a breathy little laugh as Violet shakes her head.] They're strange, all right. I met a woman who said she was from the other side of the universe, or something. And a crazy guy with a katana.

[That he repeatedly threatened her with, but he doesn't have to know that.]

They were in the basement with me. It was so...

[Violet frowns thoughtfully. How did you describe having your dreams invaded by stranger?]

[distorting]

Well, time-travel, or something.

[Even if she didn't tell him, crazy guy with a katana didn't sit well with him at all already.]

Messed up?

[hasevolved]

Time travel. Cool. [Sounds like something out of a manga.]

Yeah, that's it. And I thought I'd seen everything, back home.

[drinkandforget]

[She's in his room. Lethe reaches out to touch the edge of the bed, hand grazing the coverings. She's begun to learn to appreciate these dreams as her own way of escape; she knows what it is to be tied to one place.]

Where do you intend to go if you leave?

[It's a question to herself, maybe; but she'll hear his answer.]

[distorting]

[Now that he was used to people showing up in his mind, he glances over to her, somewhat relaxed. He doesn't intend to tell her where, because, to put it simply, there was nowhere else for him to go. In his mind or back home, he was still in the same place. So he decided to say something vague.]

Where I belong.

[drinkandforget]

There is nowhere for you to belong. [This is not a comment on Tate; this is a comment on the nature of reality.] Wherever you choose is still temporary.

Are you alright with that?

[distorting]

Not necessarily. My home is permanent.

[No. Seriously. He has nowhere to go if he goes back to that house. He was alright with it as long as Violet was with him, but this girl didn't have to know that.]

[drinkandforget]

[That may be. And at the end of all things, he won't even know that house, or that home, existed. At the end of all things, they won't. She knows this from long, long experience; but she sets it aside. She's learning to take these more immediate views, or at least to understand them, in her dreams.]

What will you do to return there?

[distorting]

Anything.

[If it meant killing the person who started all of this, he would do it.]

[drinkandforget]

That's a bold and reckless claim. Are you ready to take that upon yourself?

[She fails to be horrified; she's seen enough in her life that the dozens of lives one human could kill barely register.]

[distorting]

I wouldn't say so if I wasn't.

[repudiate]

Then why not leave?

[ Ange seems fairly casual about all of this, despite having invaded someone else's dream again, standing in an unfamiliar dark room. It doesn't look dangerous, either way, just a normal room, and considering how other people reacted to her sudden presence in their dreams she doesn't expect there to be a huge shock.

So instead she shrugs lightly. ]

[distorting]

We can't willingly leave this place, you know.

[He's not fazed by her appearance -- he was expecting at least a few people to show up unwanted.]

[repudiate]

You can't? Well, I figured as much if you were saying that, otherwise it'd all just be useless.

[ she moves to lean a little against the wall, casually. ]

So why not? Rules?

[distorting]

I don't think there are any rules that keep us here. It just is.

[Just like the damned house back at home, but at least things were more real there than they are here.]

[repudiate]

You know, 'just is' is something I really dislike. There's nothing more annoying than being caught up in something and just having to deal with it.

[ she could know. ]

I'm too sick of it by now to just stick around.

[distorting]

Well, what are you going to do about that?

[repudiate]

[ a shrug. ]

Did you try the door yet?

[distorting]

The door in this room? I know what's out there.