very soon, the light will vanish. it will take with it all the hope and joy we've ever known.

[thepull_mods]

Who: Siren's Port
When: The night of Tuesday, October 18th into the morning of Wednesday, October 19th.
Where: In the mind, in the dreams, in the unconscious of the sleepers.
Summary: --
Warnings: These dreams may be considered not safe for work, with violence, gore, death, underlying sexual themes and other mentions of graphic nature. Having them

Comments

reaction//action; HoA early morning, around town during the day

[tiny_schemer]

--LEAVE ME! [Czeslaw screams himself awake, twisted in sheets and tumbling, falling off the bed in his struggle to get away. His eyes are filled with cold tears, and immediately the thinks: Someone might've seen.

Czeslaw had experienced Firo's dream, after all, and brief parts of others. Czes bites his lip and untangles himself from the blankets, shuffling into the kitchen of the condo to make himself tea.

He decides he'll leave the house today, needs the air, once the morning sirens go off. He'll go to the library, he decides.

He wants books on flying. He wants books that promise dreams of a better future.]

Action

[vinovidivici]

[ Someone saw. And don't think he hasn't known where you live for a good while now.

Somewhere on the way to the library he makes it obvious that he's trailing Czes, slipping ahead to walk out of a side-street, or vanishing in a crowd, or waiting at traffic lights across the road. This conversation is going to happen, but if you take the chance you can choose where, kid. ]

[tiny_schemer]

[This is just about the last thing I want to deal with right now.

Seeing as Czeslaw doesn't have a choice, he'll try to make this situation come to a head on his own terms. Naturally, he could call Erik and ask to be picked up and deal with it that way, but assuming Claire hasn't read anything from the dream that's not true - there had been no violent intentions in it - he figures isn't in that much danger.

He finds a small restaurant and asks to be seated for two, placing his NV on his lap beneath the table, poised to make an emergency call if he has to. Until then, he sips at water with a little lemon slice, and appears unconcerned as he waits.]

[vinovidivici]

[ Claire waits a few minutes before following into the restaurant, ordering a coffee on the way to the table. He sits without taking his coat off and crosses one leg over the other, only acknowledging the formality of the setting with an amused quirk of his eyebrows. ]

We coulda done this before, you know. [ Assuming Czeslaw understood before as the time he'd been declared off the hook, rather than as a rebuke for not setting up a brunch date sooner. ]

[tiny_schemer]

What do you mean? Playing hide-and-seek, having breakfast like friends?

[Czeslaw calls the waitress over and sweetly asks for orange juice. When it's delivered, he drinks. He sets the glass down with a businesslike clunk.]

What do you want?

[vinovidivici]

Why not? That girl you were with, the reporter, we caught lunch together after you'd left. And she didn’t even see me as human: told me as much herself. [ Grinning, as if to say “ain’t that something?” He takes his coffee but doesn't drink yet, digging through the sugar bowl with the ridiculously tiny tongs to get the biggest lump while he considers the second question. ]

It's not like I came up with an agenda for this little meetin'. You're interesting, that's all. It's not often I get to talk to someone I've worked on. Or get feedback from them. [ and that is, basically, how he's viewing the dream ]

[tiny_schemer]

You think I'm going to give you feedback? [Czeslaw gives Claire a look of withering rage and disgust. A rather powerful one considering his stature, but one that he knows won't be effective on the monster anyway.]

As far as I'm concerned, you're still all too human. Might be capable of some grandiose violence, but still nothing more than a man who'll age and die.

[vinovidivici]

I've got no need for the kinda immortality you have. [ Quickly dismissing that comment with a wave of the tongs and putting on a mock-offended tone. ] But "grandiose"? Really? [ He picks up his cup, holding it around the rim instead of by the handle and shooting a wry look over it. ] It's all right. That dream spoke for itself.

[tiny_schemer]

--And what did it say to you, precisely? [Czeslaw scoffs. To be entirely honest, he isn't sure what the bit about the Rail Tracer meant, except that it awakened a deep fear in him.

Was he afraid they were one in the same? That he approached the monstrosity of him? The idea of doing something as fearless and... personal disturbs him.]

[vinovidivici]

That I'm doin' my job right. Both as a good old freelance killer and torturer [ a sardonic grin that is anything but self-deprecating ] and as your conscience, Czes.

[tiny_schemer]

You are not my conscience. [Couldn't be. Otherwise he surely would have said something in other parts of the dream, commented on other things - not just the violence, not just the fear, but that other, nagging emotion that keeps making Czeslaw suspect that deep down he's still human.] You're nothing but a serial killer who believes he has the moral high ground.

Why the hell are you following me?

[vinovidivici]

[ If Czeslaw thought the public space would put him off making threats, guess again. His tone is still conversational; without looking round he can hear that there's no one close enough to pick up on what he's saying. ] You sayin' I don't keep you from doin' bad things? You don't have any urges or plans that you think about actin' on, until you consider how it'd feel to have the muscle stripped from your stomach, and maybe some salt and broken glass packed in there so it tears itself apart over and over as it tries to heal?

[ He leans forward, voice suddenly lowered as if sharing an amusing secret. ] I'm following you because sometimes bad dreams show a guilty mind.

[tiny_schemer]

You're welcome to try it. And then maybe you'd like to see how it feels to be pulled apart cell by cell. [Czeslaw smiles, though his nervousness shines through.]

I managed all this time without you acting as my conscience. Didn't kill a single person. Can you explain that, if you think I'm so out of control I need a psycho killer to look after me?

[vinovidivici]

[ Something in that makes a little twitch of irritation pass over his face as he drinks. ] I wasn't gonna bring it up, but since you're callin' me a “psycho” I thought I'd mention that it's a strictly business and punishment policy I got: I don't kill just 'cause it takes my fancy. We're alike in that sense, I'll give you that. I don't believe that you were gonna put an end to the lives of all those people on the train just for the hell of it. But you can't deny you were gonna kill them. So sorry for not trusting you, even if it's true that you've been on your best behaviour since I last saw you. That ain't much to boast about when I figure you haven't lost whatever it is that makes you think you're justified in organizin' the slaughter of dozens of innocent people. [ And although he's smiling there's obvious loathing in it. No reason that could justify the murder of even one innocent person. Not even weakness or fear. ]Fact is, just like the first time we met you're findin' yourself some powerful buddies, ain't you? People who'll

[tiny_schemer]

I have no intention of fighting you. You haven't done anything to me here. I'm just letting you know what will happen if you go after me.

[Czeslaw pushes back on his chair, pulling his cap down.]

As for what was happening on that train... as far as I knew, everyone on it was dead already.

[vinovidivici]

That so. [ As excuses go it's not even worth considering. He just smirks teasingly. ] Pessimists die young, y'know.

[ Seeking out Czeslaw's eyes under the brim of his cap. ] I appreciate the warning. [ "Give me a reason and I won't be heeding it" is unspoken, but implied in the look. ]