sheep_game | Counting Stars

[ it is EXACTLY like that! a dolphin chirps cheerily and heads on over to ananke. cmon, grab his fin! where do you want to go? ]

[ motions for the spires! surely third time's a charm ]

[ alrIGHT

well this definitely goes a lot better! the dolphin also keeps up a steady stream of chatter that sounds suspiciously new york cabbie-like. you can take the boy out of the big apple, etc.

they're able to get REALLY close to the palace's borders before the dolphin stops. this is as far as he goes, bud! but don't worry, you're nearly there now. ]

Thanks, ese.

[ dreams means everyone can talk underwater! gives the dolphin a grateful pat and then turns away to book it for the palace borders ]

[ he gets

so close

to the palace boundaries. but that is a very extremely big shadow looming overhead all of a sudden,

(YOU WERE MADE FOR THE DEPTHS.)

as a familiarly monstrous blue-green hand crushes the entire building, and everyone in it.

(YOU BELONG TO ME.) ]

NO!!

Bring them back. You're a god. You can do that, can't you?

Edited 2024-05-08 02:11 (UTC)

[ she hasn't stopped btw. she is now, in fact, reaching for him.

but she does ask,

WHAT WOULD YOU GIVE FOR THAT? ]

Edited 2024-05-08 02:26 (UTC)

[ wait this is not the attention he wanted!! swimming backwards, however futile an effort that might be ]

Why should I have to give anything?! You shouldn't be treating your so-called kid like this!

[ well she's sure still grabbing at him. but luckily for ananke, this is dream-logic: so while she should have grasped him by now, she hasn't quite managed it yet.

especially because the question gives her pause

LIKE WHAT? ]

[ he's so startled that worked that it takes him a second to even answer ]

Like — taking away people who're important to him! You know parents aren't supposed to do stuff that hurts their kids, right?!

[ weird standards, dude.

WE CANNOT COEXIST. HE CHOSE ME. ]

You're a pretty lame god if you can't even figure out how sharing works.

[ Trying to find a cave to duck into or some coral or something to hide behind ]

[ there is all that coral at the place where he started. but does he really want to lead her back to it? how many more people is he willing to get killed, so that he can live? hasn't it been enough already? ]

Edited (had a thought) 2024-05-09 20:57 (UTC)

[ The answer is immediately none; no people. He doesn't even glance in that direction, deliberately moving away from the both the now distant coral and the spire rubble ]

[ that's right. no one else, ever ever again. the outliving and outliving is exhausting; it's heavy.

so isn't it better to just stop running already? it was always going to be something. ]

[ No one else. If he escapes here then it will be something else. And who else might be around when that something else comes for him? Crescendo? Lethe??

He stops abruptly, sinking down towards the seabed as he loses forward momentum ]

[ the hand closes around him and clenches.

and the last thing he hears is

YOU ARE MINE NOW, WHEREVER YOU GO.

— before the dream shatters, and they wake. (or not, if he goes on dreamwalking) ]

[ Whenever Ananke wakes up he's going to spend a few minutes in his room pulling himself back together before he even thinks of leaving his room. He paces in the hall for another minute before finally choosing Cepheus' door to knock on, but if he can't find him there then he's checking the salt lake next ]

[ he is in his room. there's a hesitation before he goes to get the door, but he does, sleep-disheveled and too tired to toss up any illusions to hide the bioluminescence effects.

winces when he sees ananke ]

Okay, I was hoping the you-being-there part was also just a dream.

Edited 2024-05-10 02:07 (UTC)

[ Oh. He already looked pretty shell-shocked, but he loses a little more color at that ]

You—saw that?

I didn't see anything you need to be ashamed of, so you can stop looking like that.

[ and then sighs, makes a doomed attempt to flatten his hair a little ]

Sorry about the...nightmare. You didn't need to deal with that.

[ does not stop looking like that ]

Is that what you're dealing with?

I am really, really used to nightmares.

Re: m!!

Re: m!!

Re: m!!

Re: m!!

Re: m!!

Re: m!!

Re: m!!

done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done

Re: done