♔ | two { night } | accidental video | teneka

[prophetize]

[ Strung up in a spiderweb canopy above the carnival, lights in green-gold- and reds illuminate the night softly. Ferris wheel cars, also dressed in lights, rock gently with a passing balmy gust, as dingy carousel ponies rest silently in the corner of the video. Tents and caravans dot the carnivale ground.

Comments

video;

[flensing]

[Her attention is drawn by his haggard appearance, and the face that appears to answer his video has its own haunted features. She has her hair back in this dream, she is not ashen, her face is not covered in bruises and lesions, but she has seen her mirror. She is barely more than a corpse in it.]

We all live in dreams.

video;

[prophetize]

[ Ben has a knack for noticing folk her. The haunted, the suffering ones who are at risk, or have already given up. ]

Nah, there's reality. And there's dreams.

video;

[flensing]

When we each see reality in our own light, it does not make it much different from a dream.

[Dreams built themselves out of reality, could invade it too. So, truly, what was there to differentiate.]

video;

[prophetize]

Folks call that a hallucination. [ A vision ] Things you think you see, but ain't really the truth.

video;

[flensing]

I know what they call them.

[There's nothing snappish in it, just sadness. They'd tortured her for those visions, they'd tortured Lucie and God only knows how many others: so that they would see beyond the living world, tell them the secrets of death.]

And they can bruise just as easily as a 'real' fist.

Re: video;

[prophetize]

[ And if they knew, what would it do for them? Did they think they could defeat death by knowing death? ]

You sure that's a dream-- a hallucination? Don't mean it's reality, either.

video;

[flensing]

[She doesn't know. They'd never told her that, just showed her suffering and promised her her very own stake in it.]

If it does not cover our experiences, then 'reality' is an arbitrary term.

video;

[prophetize]

So what would you call this? A dream? Reality?

video;

[flensing]

[A shrug.]

Some of both. It is where we are, what does it matter.

v ideo;

[prophetize]

You wanna get out, don't you?

video;

[flensing]

No.

[She shakes her head, her expression tense.]

There is no reason to go back.

video;

[prophetize]

Maybe for you.

[ Ben offers her a poker face at best. ]

But some of us- we got stuff to do.

video;

[flensing]

Yes, for me. I prefer to be without the chains.

[It's all she can really say to show she understands that others may long for their lives more than she does.]

video;

[prophetize]

Without chains?

video; wait... -finishes tag properly.-

[flensing]

[Her lips purse. She is torn between the instinct to be honest and an impulse to shove the reality as far away from herself as possible. She knows that's ridiculous, she may be in this dreamworld, but there is no separating these delusions from the world that forced her to them.

She unwraps the bandages around one of her wrists, holding it up. She had woken in Promenade with most of the damage done to her healed, but the purple scars around her wrists have refused to heal.]

A captive.

video;

[prophetize]

[ Words have never been Ben's strong point, but he is concerned - empathy is built into his very bones. Not to mention, he also knows what it's like to be a captive, fettered and bound. ]

The folks here? They want you to stay. To forget. [ He presses his lips thin. ] Don't worry.