[He doesn't shy from the touch. It's nice, welcoming. It reassures him despite the conversation about nightmares and the inability to know how to deal with them.
He looks down at her, quirking a brow.]
Pretty sure all the tentacles could care less if I told them that. All they did was laugh at me and do a pretty good impression of a dead man.
[ She laughs sourly, muffled into the mattress, the spiderweb of her dyed hair falling over her face. ]
They laugh about everything, and their sense of humor fuckin' sucks. [ Although it's also kind of her sense of humor. A sigh. ] I dunno. If I knew how to get them to knock it off, I would. My dreams are always shitty. Mostly I just wouldn't sleep, coke's fuckin' great for not sleeping. But I don't do that anymore and when everybody else starts going down...
[ When he nudges her with his long years of sleep: clean and clear and cool. ]
There's only so much coffee. [ A plaintive addition: ] And the coffee here really sucks.
[He screws his face up a little at the mention of coffee. It's not unlike the look he gives a plate of mixed vegetables, an expression that's just barely holding back an audible "blegh".]
I'm not sure how anyone can drink that stuff everyday. It's too bitter and leaves a weird aftertaste.
[But criticisms about the coffee bean aside-] They're a part of you, though, aren't they? You'd think they'd be more... I don't know. Nicer?
[ Are they a part of her, or is she a part of them? Was she the life force inside of them, that which made them living as opposed to inert. Or were they beasts within the ecosystem that is she. He shouldn't ask questions like that, it sends her into that place that is too big for either of them. The cacophony of sentience between thousands -- millions upon millions -- of atoms and all that indefinable miracle which they build upon. How different is this, from what the full force of the Nest must be like? So many little voices, so many little working pieces, in a hierarchy up and up and up... But contained in just her, contained also in just her, rather than spaced out and balanced amongst a fair spread of minds. ]
Complicated. It's... both, more. [ Her fingers tighten around his. ] We're the same and we're separate and I'm more but I'm not. Their nature is my nature, I am their nature, their world, their air, their hearts-- but there's also Annie.
[He thinks he gets it, in that weird metaphysical way. That they're hers and she's theirs. An amalgamation of sorts, with far too many parts to really comprehend.
And honestly, Noctis doesn't try to comprehend it anymore. It's a futile effort (it's too big for what he is) and so the young king is fine with just learning how to live with whatever dwells within Annie. To acknowledge it without falling into that vast void with too many teeth, and to offer himself as an anchor point with whatever he can provide. Strength, sleep, calm. Sorrow, guilt, loss. The good with the bad.
In that way, maybe he really is a part of her now, a strange anomaly stranding still at the shore of her mind. He wonders if the same could be said for the rest of the brood.
Maybe he's just overthinking it.]
Well-
[He's going to lie down now, head on his pillow again, eyes looking upward. He hasn't moved his hand.]
If I'm going to be a part of the crowd, they need to realize that I really value my beauty rest. [Noct closes his eyes, as if to accentuate this.]
[ They can hear him. They chuckle and shuffle like a murder of crows on a wire, observing a world they do not have to be a part of with sly amusement. Maybe they'll respect this little king, one day, for now... they think he's fun. They think he will inevitably loosen her restraints, the way loss and affection always do. They've seen it before, her life in and her life out.
She'll be back, sooner or later, back to what she is meant to be, among them, of them. They can wait, and until then... like unruly children, they play with the boundaries, waiting to be beaten back.
Waiting for the right pressure that will see her shed her skin once more. ]
[ She closes her eyes with him, quiet in the artificial dark of this artificial sleep cycle. She can feel what shifts and snickers in the depths of her, but instead she focuses on where their hands touch, the subtle rhythm of his pulse there where the veins thread through. She only has one or two memories of moments like this, the nightmares had always driven everyone else off... But now there's no running from her. They have to sleep, they have to find a way, no amount of distance will save them at all.
He is a part of her, a current of clear soothing water through the muck.
She tries to stay there, in that clean place, breathing as he breathes, pulse at his pace. To sleep as he sleeps. ]
[The quiet rhythm of Annie's breathing is enough to push Noctis back into sleep mere minutes later. It's not unlike slipping back underwater, clear and cool, and he'll take her with him, gladly. Dragging her under, a gentle pull, like a child tugging at a sleeve. Having forgotten completely the reason why she visited in the first place, because all that matters now is rest.
Rest. He compels her with everything that he is, just rest now.]
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somnifacient) wrote2017-03-25 01:39 am
no subject
[ She finds his hand when he lowers it from his face, lays cool fingertips across the back of his knuckles. ]
Just tell 'em to eat shit next time, I guess.
no subject
He looks down at her, quirking a brow.]
Pretty sure all the tentacles could care less if I told them that. All they did was laugh at me and do a pretty good impression of a dead man.
no subject
They laugh about everything, and their sense of humor fuckin' sucks. [ Although it's also kind of her sense of humor. A sigh. ] I dunno. If I knew how to get them to knock it off, I would. My dreams are always shitty. Mostly I just wouldn't sleep, coke's fuckin' great for not sleeping. But I don't do that anymore and when everybody else starts going down...
[ When he nudges her with his long years of sleep: clean and clear and cool. ]
There's only so much coffee. [ A plaintive addition: ] And the coffee here really sucks.
no subject
I'm not sure how anyone can drink that stuff everyday. It's too bitter and leaves a weird aftertaste.
[But criticisms about the coffee bean aside-] They're a part of you, though, aren't they? You'd think they'd be more... I don't know. Nicer?
no subject
[ Are they a part of her, or is she a part of them? Was she the life force inside of them, that which made them living as opposed to inert. Or were they beasts within the ecosystem that is she. He shouldn't ask questions like that, it sends her into that place that is too big for either of them. The cacophony of sentience between thousands -- millions upon millions -- of atoms and all that indefinable miracle which they build upon. How different is this, from what the full force of the Nest must be like? So many little voices, so many little working pieces, in a hierarchy up and up and up... But contained in just her, contained also in just her, rather than spaced out and balanced amongst a fair spread of minds. ]
Complicated. It's... both, more. [ Her fingers tighten around his. ] We're the same and we're separate and I'm more but I'm not. Their nature is my nature, I am their nature, their world, their air, their hearts-- but there's also Annie.
[ A huff of breath, and she mumbles, ]
And now there's you.
no subject
And honestly, Noctis doesn't try to comprehend it anymore. It's a futile effort (it's too big for what he is) and so the young king is fine with just learning how to live with whatever dwells within Annie. To acknowledge it without falling into that vast void with too many teeth, and to offer himself as an anchor point with whatever he can provide. Strength, sleep, calm. Sorrow, guilt, loss. The good with the bad.
In that way, maybe he really is a part of her now, a strange anomaly stranding still at the shore of her mind. He wonders if the same could be said for the rest of the brood.
Maybe he's just overthinking it.]
Well-
[He's going to lie down now, head on his pillow again, eyes looking upward. He hasn't moved his hand.]
If I'm going to be a part of the crowd, they need to realize that I really value my beauty rest. [Noct closes his eyes, as if to accentuate this.]
1/2
She'll be back, sooner or later, back to what she is meant to be, among them, of them. They can wait, and until then... like unruly children, they play with the boundaries, waiting to be beaten back.
Waiting for the right pressure that will see her shed her skin once more. ]
no subject
He is a part of her, a current of clear soothing water through the muck.
She tries to stay there, in that clean place, breathing as he breathes, pulse at his pace. To sleep as he sleeps. ]
no subject
Rest. He compels her with everything that he is, just rest now.]