at least, as far as he knows. he hasn't actually dreamed in decades, not since his magic kicked in and every dream henceforth had at least a half-note of dreamscape lucidity, and here in asgard? he falls asleep one moment, wakes up the next. nothing in between... until tonight.
tonight is when it finds him. the thing that hunted them since saimaa, the kade or whatever worse thing a kade even answers to. he's roaming the vast watery expanse of the dreamscape space between one haven and the next, not quite realizing how long it's been since he's done so - and all at once, there it is. eyes, glowing, distant in the mist. they shift as they search. lalli's heart nearly stops, and he similarly freezes in place for a moment before survival instincts properly kick in and he (slowly, carefully, at odds with every urge to flee) sinks into a crouch and slides off of the damp stone path and into the dark waters. there are things in the waters, things that have nearly drowned him once but that's not nearly so bad as what happens if it finds him.
as if drawn by the very thought, it stops now, the glow passing for eyes shifting slowly to aim his way. he sinks lower still, eyes just barely peering over the lip of the stone, as small and unobtrusive as he can possibly be without losing track of where exactly it is.
that's when it shifts toward him. it moves as if it's merely taken a step forward, but that step is far too large for the size of it, bringing it leaps and bounds closer to where lalli presumes to hide. another step, and it's closer still. it isn't looking quite at him yet, but gods, it knows. it knows he's here. it smells him or hears him or just feels him, dangling on the other end of a string tied firm to its finger.
one more step, and it's nearly upon him.
lalli jolts upright in bed with a sharp intake of breath. his heart thuds in his chest, too loud, too loud, it will hear him - but it's not here, is it? not in the waking world. it hasn't found a way to cross over quite yet, or he'd feel it here too. wouldn't he? he doesn't know. he can't feel anything here. his senses are dulled without his own magic, something he's gotten so used to in as many months but has never quite forgotten.
for once in as long as he can remember, he's forgotten entirely that emil is even there. ❱
( Previously, Emil was something of a heavy sleeper. It hasn't proven to be useful since joining the military, but the old habit of setting his own schedule has died hard. After a few years, it's become easier to wake up when necessary, but even then it takes more than a few minutes for his brain's processors to become fully functional.
After dying, there's a cycle of waking and sleeping that feels very foreign to him. He sleeps lightly, wakes more easily with a constant state of numb grogginess, and smaller movements are much more rousing. This night...it's not a slight twitch or stir, it's a full blown shock to his mattress. Emil's eyes fly open, and a few awful memories pop up in his brain. Moments of panic, because something major had to have happened. Do they have to fight again? He's not ready, absolutely not ready--
But after sitting up himself and looking around, his room is normal. There's no beast, no undead, not even another person...except for Lalli, who's sudden movement has mostly stalled in sitting up, breathing as if he'd run and only now slid to a stop.
An immediate instinct he has is to grab his friend's shoulder, but that has become...complicated. He doesn't have the right to such contact, but it doesn't stop Emil from being concerned for what has startled his friend so badly. Right now, Lalli is still stuck in some place...some bad dream that he hasn't fully cognitively escaped from, and there are maybe other ways to bring him to the surface. )
Lalli? ( He questions softly at first, but wonders if something more firm will be better to shake him out of this. Touching right now...it doesn't feel right, but he places his hand firmly on the mattress between where they sit. )Lalli.
❰ it's true - he is stuck in some place as he works to process the shift back into reality and what exactly the kade's presence means in that reality. the first quiet questioning word goes unheard, but then comes the second sharper 'lalli' and his eyes dart sharply to the hand on the bed, then up to emil's.
oh. he woke him up.
lalli blinks a long blink, letting out a slow exhale. ❱
It's fine, ❰ he says, deflecting but in a much softer tone than he might use on anyone else, or even on emil during the daylight hours. ❱ Go back to sleep.
( The shift is visible, as Lalli moves from the edges of his dream world to awareness. The expressions are different, but there are some similarities to a few that he can pull out of his memory, during the fight...that's as vague as he wants to keep the recollection.
It pulls at him, to want to offer some comfort in this situation. He remembers the small twitches and tremors Lalli would go through back home, and the small pets and pressure he'd put on his face and head to calm them. This reaction is much more severe, and it's not unlike how Emil himself has experienced a few nightmares he's had throughout his life. If he had the physical energy in him, he'd wake up similarly as of late, and quite often. )
What happened? ( The command is ignored in favor of questioning what exactly left his friend so shaken, enough to jolt up so severely. It's obvious to him that it was a bad dream, but sometimes the expression of details can help make it seem more like the fantasy it is...that is, if Lalli will offer up any. )
❰ emil doesn't listen. of course that's the one thing that stays the same regardless of how wrong everything else is. 'what happened?' he asks, and for a long few seconds, lalli just stares him in the eye. assessing. searching, though he's not even sure for what.
some sign that they're still in this together, maybe.
whatever it is, he doesn't find it. at least not definitively, and it would have to be definitive before lalli would say a single word about what he dreamed before it's necessary to do so on a purely practical level.
so he shakes his head a little, shifting to get up. ❱ Going for a run. ❰ see? he still tells you where he's going, no need to worry at all. ❱
( He waits, patiently, for some answer or explanation. It would distract him from having to actually see the eyes that are locked into his, that he still has trouble actually holding onto.
Then Lalli's eyes shift away, shaking with his head as he moves his legs, answering a different question that Emil didn't even get a chance to ask yet: 'where are you going?' He'd like to replace it with another, 'why are you leaving?', but he can think of a lot of potential answers to that.
What he really wants to communicate is that he doesn't want Lalli to leave. Maybe it wouldn't be at all what Lalli would want, but he misses that excuse to put his hand on his head. Misses even just talking, even if it's not about something so pleasant. Maybe there's some solace in the fact that he doesn't leave wordlessly, but Emil would rather he not leave at all. )
Whatever you need to do. ( Is what he says instead, accompanied with a tired sigh. His sleep was interrupted, but it's mostly from a mental exhaustion he's not so used to. Comforting his friend in some way would also be a comfort for himself, but the former wouldn't be wanted. The latter isn't deserved. )
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
❰ action ❱ day 148 (nov 4th), late night.
at least, as far as he knows. he hasn't actually dreamed in decades, not since his magic kicked in and every dream henceforth had at least a half-note of dreamscape lucidity, and here in asgard? he falls asleep one moment, wakes up the next. nothing in between... until tonight.
tonight is when it finds him. the thing that hunted them since saimaa, the kade or whatever worse thing a kade even answers to. he's roaming the vast watery expanse of the dreamscape space between one haven and the next, not quite realizing how long it's been since he's done so - and all at once, there it is. eyes, glowing, distant in the mist. they shift as they search. lalli's heart nearly stops, and he similarly freezes in place for a moment before survival instincts properly kick in and he (slowly, carefully, at odds with every urge to flee) sinks into a crouch and slides off of the damp stone path and into the dark waters. there are things in the waters, things that have nearly drowned him once but that's not nearly so bad as what happens if it finds him.
as if drawn by the very thought, it stops now, the glow passing for eyes shifting slowly to aim his way. he sinks lower still, eyes just barely peering over the lip of the stone, as small and unobtrusive as he can possibly be without losing track of where exactly it is.
that's when it shifts toward him. it moves as if it's merely taken a step forward, but that step is far too large for the size of it, bringing it leaps and bounds closer to where lalli presumes to hide. another step, and it's closer still. it isn't looking quite at him yet, but gods, it knows. it knows he's here. it smells him or hears him or just feels him, dangling on the other end of a string tied firm to its finger.
one more step, and it's nearly upon him.
lalli jolts upright in bed with a sharp intake of breath. his heart thuds in his chest, too loud, too loud, it will hear him - but it's not here, is it? not in the waking world. it hasn't found a way to cross over quite yet, or he'd feel it here too. wouldn't he? he doesn't know. he can't feel anything here. his senses are dulled without his own magic, something he's gotten so used to in as many months but has never quite forgotten.
for once in as long as he can remember, he's forgotten entirely that emil is even there. ❱
no subject
After dying, there's a cycle of waking and sleeping that feels very foreign to him. He sleeps lightly, wakes more easily with a constant state of numb grogginess, and smaller movements are much more rousing. This night...it's not a slight twitch or stir, it's a full blown shock to his mattress. Emil's eyes fly open, and a few awful memories pop up in his brain. Moments of panic, because something major had to have happened. Do they have to fight again? He's not ready, absolutely not ready--
But after sitting up himself and looking around, his room is normal. There's no beast, no undead, not even another person...except for Lalli, who's sudden movement has mostly stalled in sitting up, breathing as if he'd run and only now slid to a stop.
An immediate instinct he has is to grab his friend's shoulder, but that has become...complicated. He doesn't have the right to such contact, but it doesn't stop Emil from being concerned for what has startled his friend so badly. Right now, Lalli is still stuck in some place...some bad dream that he hasn't fully cognitively escaped from, and there are maybe other ways to bring him to the surface. )
Lalli? ( He questions softly at first, but wonders if something more firm will be better to shake him out of this. Touching right now...it doesn't feel right, but he places his hand firmly on the mattress between where they sit. ) Lalli.
no subject
oh. he woke him up.
lalli blinks a long blink, letting out a slow exhale. ❱
It's fine, ❰ he says, deflecting but in a much softer tone than he might use on anyone else, or even on emil during the daylight hours. ❱ Go back to sleep.
no subject
It pulls at him, to want to offer some comfort in this situation. He remembers the small twitches and tremors Lalli would go through back home, and the small pets and pressure he'd put on his face and head to calm them. This reaction is much more severe, and it's not unlike how Emil himself has experienced a few nightmares he's had throughout his life. If he had the physical energy in him, he'd wake up similarly as of late, and quite often. )
What happened? ( The command is ignored in favor of questioning what exactly left his friend so shaken, enough to jolt up so severely. It's obvious to him that it was a bad dream, but sometimes the expression of details can help make it seem more like the fantasy it is...that is, if Lalli will offer up any. )
no subject
some sign that they're still in this together, maybe.
whatever it is, he doesn't find it. at least not definitively, and it would have to be definitive before lalli would say a single word about what he dreamed before it's necessary to do so on a purely practical level.
so he shakes his head a little, shifting to get up. ❱ Going for a run. ❰ see? he still tells you where he's going, no need to worry at all. ❱
no subject
Then Lalli's eyes shift away, shaking with his head as he moves his legs, answering a different question that Emil didn't even get a chance to ask yet: 'where are you going?' He'd like to replace it with another, 'why are you leaving?', but he can think of a lot of potential answers to that.
What he really wants to communicate is that he doesn't want Lalli to leave. Maybe it wouldn't be at all what Lalli would want, but he misses that excuse to put his hand on his head. Misses even just talking, even if it's not about something so pleasant. Maybe there's some solace in the fact that he doesn't leave wordlessly, but Emil would rather he not leave at all. )
Whatever you need to do. ( Is what he says instead, accompanied with a tired sigh. His sleep was interrupted, but it's mostly from a mental exhaustion he's not so used to. Comforting his friend in some way would also be a comfort for himself, but the former wouldn't be wanted. The latter isn't deserved. )