[GM RP] This Bruise Looks Like the Ocean (Jamie & Shiloh)

[Melancholies]

Shiloh had a better, though far less poetic interpretation of the feeling. Honestly, it was a little like being absolutely blazed, when everything was sparkly and shiny and desperately right with the world. Everything was warm and beautiful and nothing really hurt.

"It's..." He felt like he remembered the sapling from somewhere, but maybe he was just imagining it? "Maybe..." The swell was momentarily forgotten behind them as he walked down the stone path. He didn't feel nearly as winded as he should have. Like Jamie, he chalked it up to the dream.

Taking a deep breath, he focused. The plants that grew all over his body was second nature almost, but taking that dominion over other plants still took effort. He reached out to it, tried to take in the warmth and the glow, tried to focus on it, make it grow, "******** anything." He murmured under his breath to himself.

saedusk

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

It was almost immediate, Shiloh's attempt pulling a response from the sapling. A breeze blew through the area, smelling sweetly of the wisteria that they had fallen asleep under.

'Be careful! Don't focus on me!' It was heard by them both, though the sapling did seem to grow just a little. 'You need to focus on each other!'

The ground continued to shake, a wave crashing up against the cliff and splashing water everywhere. Something inky, slimy came from the water and wriggled towards them not unlike a leech (from Lake Lachrymose).

Melancholies

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

The familiar sight, the familiar smell, it made Jamie's heartbeat slow for the shortest of moments. The fear and worry were overtaken by the thought that they'd be okay. If they just kept going, they'd make it back to the other side. And then-

"Did you hear that?" he asked, snapping back to reality, or as much reality as a dream could be. "Focus on each other... What does that mean?" He looked back to the sapling—a little bigger this time—and recalled again the sight, the smell, the feeling of the garden.

It was a feeling of lightness and warmth, just like what he'd experienced when their hands touched.

"Is it that feeling?" he asked, knowing Shiloh would understand what he meant. "Are we supposed to... try and make it happen again or something? Can we do that?" Would they have time to might be an apt question, as well, as an inky black creature leapt from the water.

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"I—I? Yeah, I—" His attention was torn from him when the... thing lunged out of the water. "The ******** does that even mean!" He wasn't looking at the tree, rather he was staring at the leech thing and busy putting himself between it and Jamie.

"I don't know what that would even do." The warmth was tantalizing and nice, but the comfort dragged him down in a sense of security. That wasn't really the best thing at the moment, he didn't think, but... the tree was saying so. Maybe he didn't have much reason to believe it, but he felt like his options were running low too. Kind of sad for being magic in a world full of magic where magic was indefinite. "But we can try? Just stay—"

His mind was already wandering before he could get his thoughts out, seeking that ever lingering warmth. Focus on each other? His eyes never left the monster, but all his thoughts became engulfed with the idea of the guy standing next to him.

saedusk

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

The leech was joined by another, the two of them twining together and forming something larger. It seemed to be a part of something far, far bigger that was still below.

With their hands linked, their thoughts towards each other, the clouds cleared once more. Sunlight - warmth - would flood them again. It was a bright, a feeling that lifted them up in feeling (and off their feet into the air as well, if they noticed).

'Just like that!' the voice called once more. 'It wants you but if you-' Then there was a screech, a pained noise, as one of the leech things hit the sapling.

Melancholies

please roll a 1D4 with your next post

saedusk

same as above! roll a 1D4 for reasons

 

[saedusk]

Somehow, chalk it up to the craziness of the moment, Jamie didn't notice right away that they were floating. His eyes were squeezed shut, his hands squeezing Shiloh's just as tightly. In his fingers were splayed, arms outstretched, reaching, reaching...

Shiloh, he said in his mind, listening to the way it reverberated. It was warm, it was–

Jamie heard the screech and his insides flipped, his eyes opened, he looked at Shiloh's face. His eyes were searching, blue-green and watery. The tree! He wanted to save it, they had to save it. Whether this was a dream or a nightmare or it didn't matter at all, Jamie's heart reached out to Shiloh's with a need for empathy and love.

Together they could do something.

Melancholies

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh didn't notice the floating either. There was something soft and calm; for a moment all he could feel was Jamie and his presence there, but in the same breath it was barely not there, like he was within reach but not. It was strange, because he was holding his hand and they were both here with one another, but—

—his mind reached right back out of desperation and instinct, even though his eyes were locked on the tree. If they could dispel the thing somehow, if they could clear the clouds and break the dream in half through sheer force of will...

Jamie! He found something solid and took hold of it without hesitation.

saedusk

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

The sunlight was back, the clouds blown away as they reached for each other. Jamie and Shiloh would find themselves in perfect sync with one another. Their hearts beat in time, their breath came as one, and their magic-

Their magic was magnified.

Somehow they just knew.

'Push it back,' the voice whispered, weak and thready. The sapling bowed under the weight of the leech thing that had latched onto it. It seemed to be sapping something from it, whether that was life or magic did not seem to matter as it was clearly fading fast.

'It wasn't counting on the two of you finding balance ...' Waves crashed, nearly drowning out the voice. The storm was upon them and something dark and ominous rose out of the water. They were sprayed with water, the roar of the ocean almost drowning out all noise.

The beast, something with too many teeth and too many eyes, was focused on them now.

saedusk

get your

Melancholies

attack on

 

[saedusk]

The click when it all came together was like nothing Jamie had ever felt before, it was stronger than the way their minds brushed earlier, it was more significant than any thought he ever remembered having on his own. Honestly, the whole thing was weird and indescribable, and in the moment there wasn't as much time to simply experience the way he suddenly wanted to. Forget nightmares and dreamscapes, what he wanted was what he had right here, the newfound connection with Shiloh.

It was them and it was no one else.

Unfortunately, there was still a matter of escaping from their candy land turned sour and there was still saving the sapling he felt inexplicably attached to. There was still stopping this monster whose many eyes latched onto them like homing beacons.

Shiloh, he said, but it wasn't out loud and it was difficult to tell if these thoughts were truly only his or some strange amalgamation of the both of them. From there he thought nothing else in particular, but he knew that Shiloh also knew something between them had grown. They were stronger, they could do this, and with a sharp intake of breath he let go of his hands. It would be okay.

In what was a brief instant compared to normal, a visible wind blew and Jamie was a half-hare, feet wide and flat and powerful, ears long and alert, nails curled into small claws. The magic that seemed to hold them above the ground let him go and he fell at the beast, poised for kick to one of its many eyes.

Melancholies

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Melancholies]

Like a puzzle piece falling into place? Like two links of a chain clicking together? There was a reverberating snap as something separate came into one, this overwhelming sense of being wholesome rather than alone. Did "alone" have a distinct, parallel opposite? Could it be put into a word? "Together" didn't describe this feeling so much as it only touched on it.

It felt empowering—like he could do anything, be anything—unstoppable. Jamie had let go of his hands physically, but mentally they still felt completely intertwined. All he wanted to do was latch onto the feeling—ride the sensation out—but they were still in danger. His instincts brought all of his focus to the forefront. Something was moving under his skin—something alive—he vaguely registered it as his flowers, but they thrummed with something far different, something robust.

Jamie, he responded, surprised to find that they no longer needed vocalization to communicate, but not really reacting to the surprise either. I have your back.

His vision was still clear and intelligible, but... it was muddled, too, like there was an interface overlay layered on top. Every stimuli pulled at separate reactions. There was a natural rhythm to the world around them, and it felt like if he just reached out—

Jamie stepped, swung, foot connecting with the creature. Shiloh's hand reached up delicately and swiped to the side. An enormous root conjured itself out of the ground in a not-so-delicate mirrored image, slamming down against the creature in case it tried to retaliate against Jamie. He held the hand there, reached up with his other one; come back he didn't mean to let it slip, but his mind was urging him to be closer.

saedusk

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

Too far away from each other and things would start to slip, the sunlight in their minds falling away. Jamie's form would start shifting back and the enormous root that Shiloh called forth began to wither after it slammed against the creature.

It roared, the noise a painful screech. The form shifted, changed until it was not nearly as large and could avoid the blows. It's many eyes turned to moths that fluttered in the air, what was once a large form became what looked like weathered limbs of a tree that was rotting away and oozing into inky black nothing.

The moths swirled and launched themselves at the pair, wings razor sharp.

Melancholies

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

The link began to fray around the edges, but their attacks had done the job regardless, their amplified power breaking the creature apart. For a moment Jamie thought they'd won, he thought the roar that pierced the sky might be its last, but where they eyes broke away they became a wild swarm of moths instead. Jamie could see the glint of their razor edged wings.

"Shiloh!" he called, this time out loud as he began to fall back. On the way a moth caught his cheek, another his arm, and faint dribbles of blood stained his skin. It made Jamie acutely aware of their existence outside their own minds.

"C-Can you... can you shield us??" It was all he could think of, a wall of vines and flowers. As he ran back towards Shiloh, he could feel the worries of the world outside their minds begin to ebb away again in favor of comfort, of the feeling that everything would be okay because they'd make it okay. He just had to believe it.

Melancholies

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Melancholies]

"s**t—Jamie!" He called back to him as the creature distorted into a shower of sharp-winged moths. Jamie was bleeding and he wasn't having any of it. He rushed to meet him half way, arms protectively wrapping around him as he acted on instinct. Shield, shield, shield—

The warmth was back as their minds interlocked again, their magic stronger and sharper and much more focused. The ground rumbled around them, the interface pulsing with an imaginary beat as he grabbed the air and yanked upwards with his hand.

Beneath him the earth obeyed, a wall emerging from their right side, constructed out of root and wood and soil. He gritted his teeth—not pained, not pained but... worked—as he repeated the motion. Wall. Wall. Wall. The sun faded in a physical sense, but he still felt it in his mind.

His chest heaved from the effort, his head falling against Jamie's.

saedusk

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

There was another shriek, part of the shield that Shiloh created crumbling but quickly replaced by more as he continued to summon it. The sound of moths hitting it could be heard over everything else; wings battering and then the soft thump as they hit the ground.

For now, it seemed, the barrier was keeping the weakened creature away from them.

... but not the sapling that had grown to what looked like a small wisteria. The same inky black substance that had been around the creature was crawling up it and, for a moment, it sounded as if there was a choked voice on the wind. Briefly there and then gone with another shriek of the thing on the other side of the wall.

Melancholies

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

With Shiloh's quick reaction shielding them from the moths and their sharp, blade-like wings, Jamie let himself relax for the shortest of seconds. He kept his arms around Shiloh, tight, protective. It worried him the way he slouched with effort and the sound of the creature's relentless assault against their barricade made the anxiety spike anew, made it grow, made it fester. He tried to hold tight to the feeling of their mental bond as comfort, but Shiloh would likely feel the waves of unease before Jamie was able to quell them.

"I want this to stop..." he muttered, tired of sleeping and tired of dreaming. Outside their wall of vines and flowers, he heard the choked cry of the tiny wisteria tree and he felt a deep ache in his gut.

Jamie screamed, eyes squeezed shut, not holding back. There was no reason for it beyond an escape from the stress, a way to let it all out, to show how absolutely frustrated he was. All he wanted was for this nightmare to stop.

Melancholies

Ashdown Whaler

Jamie is attempting to (accidentally) use a power on the monster (and also Shiloh, sorry love):

Primal Scream - When you scream, people stop moving. They physically cannot move for 15 seconds. Not even to breathe.