eswareinmal | Action: but you never tire of dreams

Entry tags:

Action: but you never tire of dreams

Characters: Any willing dreamers
Open? Yes
Where: In your minds
When: After the party
What: Part two of the dream plot!
Warnings:

The party went on, with the beast's head on display. A proud, twisted thing. Behind false ruby eyes, it waited. And as the music became slower and the wine less plentiful, it waited still.

Those who had gazed upon it at the ball. Those who had seen it once living in the forest. All heroes who dared to look upon its face and dream still that they would be able to live another day...

There are all sorts of ways of living. In waking. In sleep. Perhaps, now, they would find one in between.

(ooc: Feel free to keep tagging into the party post! Once your characters go home and go to sleep of their own accord, that is when the dreaming will begin. Remember, it is up to you to set up what kind of world your character is trapped in and how best to help them. Plotting post is here, make use of it!

The beast's power will wane once the bulk of the dreamers have escaped his curse. If your character was not at the party but you still want to involve them in the dream plot, that is fine! They can either help get people out or have seen the beast wandering in the woods before it was killed and have caught its attention that way.

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This was precisely that. A nightmare. Good guess, Helios.

Giles swats Buffy aside with a vicious backhand to the face, sending the Slayer sprawling to the grass. He follows it up with a kick that makes another "crack", this time of breaking bones, audible in the melee. She cries out in pain, a noise sharper and realer than all the rest, combining all the screams of all the Potentials that Giles has ever heard.

Then Giles looks up at Helios as he shakily draws near. He glares at him, another growl - softer this time, but still there - rumbling in his throat. Then, much faster, Giles moves over to be right in front of Helios, grabbing him by the scruff of the shirt and putting the two of them nose-to-nose.

"'Love and care about'? People you love and care about don't bury and forget about you."

Then he executes a neat sweep that will drop Helios on his back in the grass if the other man doesn't react quickly enough.

Helios will just flinch away the noise so very sharp and real in his ears. He had to stop this, somehow, he had to stop this. Helios' eyes will tick towards the ground when the other man looks at him and then before he has a chance to react he's being grabbed by his shirt. He makes an audible whimper in the back of his throat eyes closing slightly as he waits for a hit to the face or something equally as painful. Something Nero would do, not Giles, but the line is automatically blurred in this case and he hates himself for doing that. While his thoughts are muddled and confused there comes the sweep which will, indeed, knock Helios onto his back. He's far too shaken to react very well to anything right now. He'll hit the ground which will leave him breathless as the air is knocked clean out of him. He gasps looking back up at the other with pleading, almost terrified eyes.

His voice when he replies is barely above a whisper. "I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't forget you. G-Ginia and Grune and Link d-didn't forget you. I-I could never forget you." His voice is pained and scared and just so many things right now. He doesn't like this, not one bit, but he has to make Giles understand. Or maybe he might not be able to, he doesn't know, but he has to try.

"I know you didn't."

For a second, Giles sounds just like himself. Even as he stares down at Helios with a demon's face and blood around his mouth, he sounds like himself. And he sounds honestly touched that Helios would say such a thing.

"That's why you're here."

And Helios has accomplished what he set out to do. The other attendees have all fled into the night. But the city still burns behind the iron fence, and there will be no safety for them out there. But Buffy remains, creeping up behind Giles, raising a stake, tears in her eyes. Just before she can bring it down into his heart, Giles whirls around, grabs her by the throat, and lifts her off the ground. Buffy chokes, kicking, struggling, unable to break free.

"And they're gone."

No no no. This was not happening. He will not let you kill her Giles. So he will get up and wrap his arms around the other in a futile effort to try and make him drop his hold on Buffy. No magic, he's not going to use magic on the one person who he deems as family. He just can't do it.

"They're not gone. Y-You're not gone either!" He will try to pull the other man's hands down, anything to make him stop hurting Buffy.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't help you like you've helped me in L-Luceti. I-I'm sorry I wasn't there." When the other died. He wishes he could have been and gods he would have taken his place if he could. He says that with all the apologetic tone he can muster.

For a second, the three of them are frozen in a tableau - Buffy has stopped moving at all, and dangles limply from Giles' grip. Giles himself is still as a statue, without even the faint signs of breath to show he's even alive.

Finally, slowly, Giles opens his hand. Buffy collapses to the ground. She lays motionless in the grass, but close examination will reveal that her chest rises and falls with shallow breaths. She still lives. Giles lowers his hand back to his side, but otherwise makes no move. When he speaks, there's no emotion in his tone at all.

"Sentimental fool."

A flinch as he watches Buffy's motionless body hit the ground. But there's a sigh of relief as he notes how she's still breathing. The air doesn't seem as charged, as destructive and crazy as before. The silent lull dragging out what eventually leads to Giles' reply. He bites his lip because maybe the other is right. Maybe he is a fool for trying to argue and reason with a vampire so filled with anger and hate. Anger and hate that they caused somehow one way or another. But he knows he can't just leave him like this, Giles didn't, during that Alternate Universe when he himself went on a rampage. This seems oddly similar somehow in a twisted surreal sort of way. He doesn't let go of his grip on the other though. "C-Can you blame me f-for, for having such things towards s-someone I-I consider family?"

He ventures softly and a bit more timidly than he would normally. "N-No matter what you may think I-I'll think that always." No matter how Giles perceives himself Helios will always try to remind him that he does matter. His legacy, the memories he left behind with people, all those matter just as much as physically being here too.

What's left of his human heart breaks at the tone of Helios' voice. The other man's faith in him really is unbreakable, isn't it? Giles realizes that he could probably kill Helios right now, and the other would blame himself for it. He is a fool, but he's Giles' fool, and his family.

"But I'm not the only person you think of as family that manages to be hazardous to your health at the same time, am I?"

It's an unfair jab, but Giles knows that it's also an accurate one, one that would take him being soulless but without malice towards the other to give voice to. He moves to, gently bur firmly, priy the other man's hands off of him.

"...besides. You'll manage without me, one day. You'll have to."

Helios' grip is firmly broken by the other's movements. He steps away hunching and flinching at that statement. It hurts on a deep emotional level to hear that from Giles. He knew better than anyone that saying such things would hurt.

"W-Why? What are you asking me that?" When you know the answer already. Helios' mouth is twisted into a pursed frown as he bites his lip and shakes his head.

"N-No. I...I won't, not-not as well as you might think." He looks honestly saddened that you would even think that Giles.

"And that's precisely the problem."

Giles looks back at Helios - his face is human, again, and as for his voice...well, he seems to simply be desperate for Helios to understand whatever his point is.

"One day, Helios, I am going to die. Whether defending you from a vampire attack or of old age in the middle of a chapter. One day, Helios, I am going to die and perhaps the world will be merciful enough to let me rest when I do."

He turns around properly, now, and suddenly moves to pull Helios into a hug. There's some life in his skin, now, as the memory of that day in the market is still fresh in his mind.

"But how can I, if I'm terrified that you won't look after yourself without me? If I'm always afraid of someone hurting you? The dead don't forget the living, Helios. We're just lied to and told that they're getting on fine without us."

He looks taken aback at that. His mind automatically goes to the most self deprecating idea that it's his fault Giles is suffering like this. It's him that's keeping him chained down and suffering because he can only take so much abuse. He's so weak and useless that he needs defending from a man too broken and too tired from his own ordeals. His so stupid and selfish. He makes to pull away from the hug but he can't bring himself to do so. Not right now.

"I-I will be though. E-Eventually I. You don't, you d-don't have to worry about me." Not if it doesn't bring you peace is the unsaid statement. Not if it makes him hurt and unable to move on. He doesn't know what to say and is just silent as he's drawn into that hug only a slight flinch and hunch as Giles does so.

"Yes, Helios. I do. Because someone has to, and you insist on ensuring that it isn't you. It isn't healthy for anyone, not for you or the people who care about you."

Like me is just as unsaid but no less true.

"Do you understand?"

Yes, he hurts over Helios' inability to look after himself, and he's deathly afraid of what will happen to him when he's gone, but Giles doesn't blame Helios for it, ever.

"N-No. I d-do take care of myself. I-I'm just not used to..." People taking care of him. He doesn't take care of himself as much as he should though, he knows that. Sometimes he wonders if he really even should make the effort. But those are fleeting thoughts when he thinks about Giles and Ginia and everyone else who he has to help and protect. He can't help but put himself on the back burner. 'Too selfless' Ra always used to say and maybe he was, but he can't stand to see people he loves hurt or upset.

He bites his lip and looks at the ground. He only nods a little in acknowledgement. Giles has been there for him since day one of them meeting. He understands entirely. "I-I'll try harder t-to do so." For Giles' sake and Ginia's and everyone else's too.

"...excellent."

Giles isn't sure he believes Helios - he knows better than to believe Helios, in such matters - but he also knows that he has to have some faith in him. He owes that much to Helios, as a friend. He owes it to him to at least hope that the other can move past all the abuse he's suffered throughout his life. And so he does.

Giles pulls away, steps back just a bit, enough to give himself some space to recover. Space. He needs space, he knows he does. But...

"Well, um...that is a matter for another day, I suppose. While, um, while these thorns are a threat, none of us are going anywhere."

He smiles tiredly at Helios. "So it isn't as though I'm going anywhere any time soon."

And he can't bring himself to regret that fact entirely. If he has to be trapped here, he'd rather be trapped with his best friend.

In the way of dreams, Giles produces a flash and passes it over to Helios. Opening it will reveal hot, sweet tea, the kind they had in the market, just the thing to chase away the mist and the chill.

"Walk with me?"

"W-Would you like to-to go anywhere else? I-I know we've talked about it...g-going to my world I mean." But he isn't sure anymore if that's what Giles would truly want. Going back with Helios would only open up more problems more hardships. Nero comes to mind and Helios quickly closes his eyes head turning away and downward to the ground. No. No. He can't think about that right now.

"Even if you did go somewhere we s-seem to have the uncanny fortune of-of winding up meeting each other." Even meeting in Luceti was unexpected but here now too? It was a strange sort of happenstance to meet the same man twice in two different worlds. Helios looks down into the flask with a small sad smile. He blinks at the question, "a-a walk? N=Now, here?"

The cemetery is a strange place for a walk and the prior happenings has left him a little more than shaken. He can't really say no though to the question. "If-if you want me to..." he wouldn't say no.

That is what Giles would truly and honestly want. More than anything. So much it hurts. But those were easy plans to make when he had a body and some false life. Now, as a ghost...well, Giles doesn't hold out much hope.

"Anywhere but here," is all he says instead. Fortunately for Helios' mental stability, Giles' goal seem sto be the cemetery gates. And, despite himself, Giles smiles a real smile at Helios' observation. They do, don't they? First Luceti and now here. And once something had been done once...well, it was always easier to do again.

"We do, don't we? Wouldn't that be something. Traveling the worlds together, the three of us."

the gates swing open for them in a helpful breeze, and beyond lays Luceti, peaceful and quiet under the stars. Buffy waves at the two men as she wanders by on aptrol. Giles waves back.

"...I wouldn't mind that at all."

"That would be nice. I-I would...like that. Traveling with you and Ginia." He can't really think of anything better at the moment. Well he could. Four instead of three but that's another thought that sends a painful jolt through his chest, right where his heart lay. Four instead of three would be a dream come true.

Helios is shaken from his mulling when he he's the change in scenery. "L-Luceti?" He sounds confused and he turns to look behind thinking to see the cold misty cemetery but it's no more and it's simply filled with trees.

Four instead of three. Giles had been thinking much the same thing, but he hadn't wanted to give voice to it. It isn't impossible, he thinks, that one day Elise might be swept their way. But it's a faint possibility, and he doesn't want to either get Helios' hopes up or dash them, and Giles isn't certain which one he would accomplish.

"Funny thing, dreams." Giles taps his flash lightly against Helios' in a silent toast. "Come on. I'll, um, I'll walk you home."

He remembers the way. It's only been a few days, after all.

Elise. The mere thought of her makes Helios sigh in long lost love struck adoration. He doesn't voice it either because he's afraid that it might somehow never come to be. He can hold out hope as much as he likes but he knows, he knows that it's not a possibility...and yet all this time it could be. Luceti's ways have made him curious about death and how it's dealt with there. But that's a thought for another day, another dream maybe.

"Funny thing, yes. You would think we'd be used to it by now. What with all the funny business we've been through." He shrugs a little and continues following Giles' lead.

"It's peaceful out tonight." His gaze ticks up towards the stars their brilliant glow reflecting off his glasses.

"There were peaceful nights."

Buildings pass them by as they walk, muted and a bit faded by the dreamscape but otherwise recognizable. The library. Seventh Heaven. The grocery store.

"Most of them were peaceful, actually. Three weeks out of four. Really, um, compared to home...compared to here...it, i-it was practically a vacation."

Community Building Seven rises up before them, a familiar shape casting a familiar shadow. Giles pauses beneath it, his face just as much as shadow as he stares up and up at it.

"...remember when you had to drag me back here, Helios?" During one time of many when the Malnosso had all but cracked Giles and all his defenses into a thousand fragments.

"Of course there were. When we went out on the boat all those times. When you..." he pauses looking a bit sheepish at the recollection and remembrance of such things, "when you read t-to me." Even now it makes him shake his head and laugh a little. Having to have someone read to him, not his most defining moment. But he says nothing on the matter especially not what caused it as Giles readily knows as is.

"I-I don't have it as bad as you a-and Buffy and Willow d-did. T-To be honest if I could help you back in your world I would do so in a heartbeat. But there were things that happened in my own. G-Getting away from it all is nice, isn't it?" Even if Luceti wasn't the picturesque getaway that people would want. There were darker things about it, deeper and more heinous than what even some other worlds had. But it did give people chances and a new life where some didn't have that anymore. Helios blinks looks up at Community Building Seven and the familiarity of it all. His first really residence here. Even if the house was more quaint and spacious. He had...so many memories in this place, he never really got over missing it when they moved. Silly but maybe he was just too sentimental that way.

"I-I do." A nod as he looks back over at Giles with a small frown. "Why?"

"...I don't know." Giles seems a bit shamefaced to admit as much. "It's just...thinking back, um, I, I-I could, well, really kick myself. It's always that way, isn't it? Hindsight being twenty twenty, and all that. But...gods, if I'd known then how little time I would have, I could have kicked myself for not taking advantage of all the time I could. I miss this place, Helios. Ginia is here, and that's...indescribably wonderful, but...we, w-we aren't here."

Even so, Giles sets his feet on the steps. One last walk up. One last time, if only in his memories.

"I'd just started to accept that we might be allowed to stay."

"It always is. If you could see into the future though I wonder if that would have made it any better?" His voice is sad and dour when he says that. Elise. If he had only know how quickly he would lose her. All the things he never got to say, do, experience with her. All of it was due to poor judgement and a lack of hindsight. Helios follows pausing slightly at those words. If they could have stayed...

"I-I think a lot of people started to accept it. It, it was nice while it lasted. I miss it too." More for the people than anything.

And up they go together, the steps sounding just the same under their feet as they always did. Giles can give only silence in response for the first floor or so.

"I asked a man, once...a time traveler...what that was like. Being able to, um, go further in time, or back, or, or see things with a hindsight most people can't ever have." He'd asked the question in the intervening, endless week of Helios' death. The issue of time, specifically of skipping it, had been heavily weighing on Giles' mind, back then.

"It, i-it probably wouldn't have. I know that. I'm, I'm not sure I would have believed myself, in any case. Certainly would't have been the first time one of us was, um, shown a false future just to demoralize us."

Everything sounds just as it would. It almost makes Helios think they're actually back in Luceti aside from the lack of wings and the fact that this is a dream.

"I p-probably would have been...more careful. If, if I could have seen what would happen. I don't know if-if I would have believed it either. I was bit too careless. I-I should have been careful to begin with." He should have been a lot things back then. But he knows better now even at the price being so great. A frown as he looks at the empty apartments. Too quiet for this building especially with the neighbors being so close.

"You should be more careful in general, Helios. That's, um, just what we talked about. Y-You'd, you'd be doing me a favor, really."

Giles never really knew too many of their neighbors, just one of many regrets he's carrying with him. So they can't appear, here, not even in this odd dream that isn't quite theirs', isn't quite anyone's, and started off as a trap they've only just figured out how to escape. So the floors are dark, the doors are closed, no voices issue from within. It's how the place had seemed for the longest time to Giles.

"...y-you deserve to be safe. You deserve a world that's...a bit less harsh to you."

Action: but you never tire of dreams

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