broken down by the sound of your prelude

[iudex]

Who: Dreamin' (iudex) & Accidentally Dreamwalkin' (psychopath).
When: Late night on the 31st.
Where: Phancyhive, but in a dreamfield.
Summary: In which Oswald takes the risk of making a part of Lake Meridian in a dreamfield and accidentally tugs the closest sleeper (Jack) in. oops??
Warnings: Thankfully no pie gallows!  Check yourself before you wreck yourself, Jack.

[oswald slips up when he starts - the key tonight is to make sure the setting is the last thing in your head before you sleep. he thinks and thinks, and slips because while he's thinking of lake meridian golden lights come to his distant mind.

the abyss taints this field that's mostly forest, but when he opens his eyes and sees the lake - shallow waters just in case someone wandered in and right into the lake - and nessie basking in the sunlight near the shore, maybe it's not so much of a mistake. the lights aren't present where he can see, so maybe they're further in. he tends to tuck the more personal aspects of his fields away in boxes, in spheres, under tight lock and key -

he pushes himself away from the tree he's sitting against, atmosphere as calm and quiet as he can make it, and slips over to the lake shore, blinking when nessie doesn't move. sleeping? weird thing. looking up warrants the sight of the bottom of the floating mountain - strong enough to make that in its entirety he sees. as long as it doesn't drift he should be fine; it'll stay immobile and he won't have to waste any dream energy on it. lake meridian is beautiful as it is, all stones, crystal clear lake, strong lake monster, the forest, and...

that temporary house that had a purpose. he'd rather sleep near the lake than go there and look. at least- for this visit. oswald thinks he can get away with it once.

with luck, he won't end up pulling anyone in; jack's first in his mind, and ciel, gilbert, and ahiru are all next. there are other occupants, but oswald far from cares (about anyone who isn't jack). - still, he didn't make this field to stress over things. he made it to escape from his nightmares for a night - maybe two if he can manage to not pull anyone in. if he does pull anyone in, it's likely that they'll show up close so it's not as if he'll miss them at any time tonight.

forcing them out would just hurt them.

it's a long shot, but it's worth it to save himself from the sight of another noctaere.]

Comments

[psychopath]

[he subsides, moving to splash his face with water and...try to drown himself in the sink......that won't work with oswald in the room, wouldn't it.]

Could you warn me the next time you create one of those?

[he asks, weakly, moving to bury his face in oswald's shoulder, without any sort of preamble whatsoever. he's the one who takes oswald's hand now, hand still shaking in his, seeking solace.]

[iudex]

[no, never. he'd threaten jack with the pie gallows and a haircut.]

...I could.

[but it wouldn't help.

maybe oswald should've forced jack out despite the pain— it's jack face in his shoulder and his shaking hand in his that has oswald sighing and wrapping an arm around jack. he squeezes a bit - i'm here even if i don't know for how long - and keeps himself warm and open even if he's a bit... tired, and yet wide awake.]

[psychopath]

Do you remember everything?

[he asks, into the crook of oswald's neck, letting go of his hand in favor of linking his hands around the small of the other's back. he hates the feeling, this feeling, like the world is still off-kilter, because he remembers oswald saying that he wanted him, not oz, and he's torn between the man remembering or not at all.

he'll take what he can get right now. he'll take everything.]

[iudex]

I do - it was my dreamfield, after all.

[sliding his free hand along jack's arm then, trying to help him settle quicker and bring him down from this. oswald isn't fond of forgetting evidently - he's still a little hung of the fact that it was oz, but there are more important things to think about.

now that he's gotten that sorted out, every other gap is something that he can take apart himself on his own time.]

[psychopath]

I didn't lie.

[this is an important achievement! and he promptly bites oswald's shoulder thank you. he squeezes, a little, and then takes a half- step backwards, riiight out of the bathroom-

maybe he can ollie out of the window??]

Can you take Oz's contract? When I fade away?

[iudex]

[maybe oswald can cut his hair or tie him to the bed? oswald follows like a fish on a line when jack steps back.]

- if you and Oz can agree on it, yes.

[that's not something he's very comfortable with, though - taking the chain that helped kill him, that is, and he's keeping his eyes on jack. he's all sorts of ready to snatch him up if he needs to.]

I didn't lie, either.

[but. he never lies, so. hm.]

[psychopath]

[he shakes his head, crossing the room to flounce over barefoot to the window.]

With everything I've done to my cute little rabbit, I don't think he'd be amenable to any sort of agreement.

[he slides down the window, curling up into a ball against the glass and looking up at oswald. he smiles up at the other man, wondering why on earth he'd not been kicked out yet.]

He was really, really precious to you, wasn't he?

[iudex]

Then he comes and goes with you. We've been over this already: I want you, not him. [solid and final as he- tries to locate his boots. and his coat. that'd be nice. leave here and not come back for a bit, expend this energy. if oz doesn't come with jack attached, he doesn't want him.

it's no wonder that oz wouldn't be willing for an agreement; he keeps treating him like z pet.]

He wasn't precious - but, he was close.

[and that's based on pure feeling- he can't find them. wonderful.]

flies into space

[psychopath]

[wow if he leaves jack will just have to come with him then!! he folds his hands around his knees and blows the hair out of his face.]

And I love you, not her.

[tone like commenting on the weather, jack is the champion of subtlety. he's tired, to be honest, of having this and being wrecked with the possibility that everything might end without oswald really knowing what the fuck was going on in jack's head.]

You're not going anywhere, are you?

[1/2] oic

[iudex]

[and he just says it so easily--! oswald's stopped in his tracks near the bed and he looks at jack for a moment.

a very, very long moment.]

[iudex]

[before crawling right back into bed and throwing the covers over himself as he sits with his back turned to jack like any mature adult would do. because he's a mature adult with mature thoughts and mature feelings. right.

...uh.. huh.....

and then - like any mature adult feeling their face heating up - he mumbles out a reply.

sure don't know how to deal with this other than mumbling the truth. (that he loves him, too. not... that jack can hear, um.)]

[psychopath]

[oh. oh ok oswald's mumbling something jack can't understand and he has his back turned to jack and oh, he can't help but take it the wrong way.

life is hard. his hands shake, and as he climbs to his feet it feels like he's stepping on his heart. well at least oswald knows! unlike lacie, where he never risked the chance of trying to get to know her better, with oswald, he was willing to sacrifice what they had if only for the faintest glimmer of hope that the baskerville heir would somehow....reciprocate.

alas, alas, juliet is going to go burn things now!!]

You...don't have to say anything about it, I am aware that we are both men and we...were best friends, so...

[he takes a breath, heads to the nightstand to take his earring, maybe he can drown himself in his tears in his rooms... oh no he can't cry here, self, stop.]

Haha, when it comes to these things, I'm really awkward. I'm sorry, Oswald.

[iudex]

[WHAT turning his head so quick towards jack that he's afraid it might've snapped - except it didn't, thank god! another ouchie for the road.

wow no don't cry he's an idiot-- and feels like he has a bunch of cotton stuck in his mouth, in his thoat, and skdgdkag]

--don't apologize.

[said like jack's the idiot, but oswald's just as bad gosh.] I said - [LIFE... OF AN AWKWARD TURTLE... AWKHAWK... this is so difficult, but it doesn't feel right not saying it.]

I love you, too. [and NOPE HE CAN'T KEEP HIS HEAD VISIBLE flushing like he's never before and just. going back under the covers to smother himself or something hdfk.

what are emotions what are feelings. ugh.]

1/4

[psychopath]

Are you blushing? You're blushing. Your ears are red-

[psychopath]

[wait, what.









he drops the earring back on the nightstand.]

[psychopath]

[you know what, you know what, jack is just going to....lie down and flop over oswald and generally wriggle over the oswald burrito. did he really just say....]

done oh no

[psychopath]

[jack, being very helpful, rolls over to his stomach and kicks up his legs, squirming his way over to where the top of oswald's head is, and he knocks their heads together, lightly. he laughs, too, something welling up in his chest again.

ohhhh now he can feel his cheeks heat up. oswald burrito, why do you inflict these feelings on jack?]

We're...both idiots, aren't we?

[1/2] lmfao ho boy

[iudex]

[he wants to snap that he's not blushing tyvm he's rarely been in such a position and he's twenty seven, but he hears the earring drop and his mouth snaps shut.

fight or flight senses, go- oswald's never saying anything like that again, gosh! the lying down and the flop and wriggling start and the oswald burrito is frozen as its contents try to figure out what to do and how to process what's happening.

--a lot of movement, yes, jack seems particularly fond of imitating a wriggly critter, and it doesn't look like he hates him. oswald had a nasty penchant for shutting himself down when his feelings became too much in hypnosia, and by the tine he hit that baseball diamond he learned that that's- not exactly healthy, releasing his breakfast aside.

he had no reason to not reciprocate (understanding brought on by being somewhere else helped), glen's sneering something he accepts and gets over. he'd run to silence glen further, but jack's knocking their heads together and laughing and it makes him twitch a moment in indecisiveness.]

[iudex]

[there's a rustle as he... fights his way out of the mess he's rolled himself into, yes, and he sits up on his knees as the covers fall away. idiots- that's what he's been calling them all along, and oswald frowns in thought, face back to being - well, not red.]

...we are. [because it's rare that master glen is wrong and oswald has long accepted that he's an idiot.

they're not fools, but they're definitely idiots.]

[psychopath]

[jack, oblivious to oswald's inner demons (i.e., glens), crawls over and headbutts him in the chest. oh. oh, oh, oh, jack feels like reaching up and taking oswald's heart and holding it against his, a fluttering bloody bird....]

I hope you understand what you're getting into.

[he murmurs, because oswald will have to live with the fact that jack, someday, will kill him, and destroy everything his world is.]

[iudex]

[may he stay forever oblivious to the symphony of burning disapproval that oswald can't completely block out! jack can think and do what he wants to - oswald is still a vessel of glen baskerville and he's so close to obtaining his title that it doesn't matter to him what anyone calls him if they aren't lacie, jack, and master glen.

...well. he'll just have to count on the next glen, won't he? there are ways to fix what's been done - some ways that he's not ready to accept - and he's sure he'll figure it out.

(what use can he make of this body...?)

oswald pets a hand over jack's head and nods, as simple as that. sombre seriousness - he'll erase lacie's existence and continue to get in jack's way. jack can't change that. oswald won't let the world that lacie loved be torn apart.]

[psychopath]

My birthday falls on the third week of this world's month on January. I've until then with you, I guess.

[he sits back on his haunches and reaches out to tug on oswald's hair, looking at him, really looking at him. he drags his fingers diagonally from shoulder to hip, tracing where he had wounded glen first.]

My soul had been steadily fragmenting and disappearing for the last hundred years, along with my memories. Alice and her sister shattered it, I think, when she killed herself.

[iudex]

[what a terribly misfortunate life, he thinks. the children of misfortune destroy everything they touch (no, no, enough of that, hush). oswald follows the tug without looking away, gluing his eyes to jack's as he so often does. lovely, reflective sort of eyes -

and, he keeps his hands as his sides when jack's hand falls in its drag over his torso, not minding it as much as he might have once. only lacie touched him back then - alice sounds familiar.

he stares, sharp and clear.] ...and you think that will continue here.

[not a question. (foolish - when oswald was young and stabilizing, he frowned at people for less.)]

[psychopath]

[there's a diary in ciel's possession that oswald will never see, and it's the most important record of Jack's memories. he'll leave instructions, of course, but only to ciel.]

Yes, I'll lose all my memories. Maybe I just...won't wake up. I don't know, have you ever seen something without a soul?

[he asks, faintly desperate, cupping the other's face like he's afraid. (he is.)]

[iudex]

[until it's put on tumblr, you mean - and there's the core of the abyss, but that's a special something. likely the noctaere too - (can he exchange a soul to stop a soul from breaking anymore he wonders and doesn't that create a sharp pang in his skull)]

- yes. [finally, quietly, pained for a moment. both special, special cases, and he reaches up to cover jack's hands with his.] They were both special, but very awake.

What will you do if you remain... or if you end up returning to the way you are now?

[with soul and memories, that is. it's always good to have a plan for the ifs, remaining, and backups for the returns.]