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

[Melancholies]

Shiloh felt the waves, and in return Jamie could probably feel the reciprocated exhaustion. What happened to their dream and the promises of an innocent walk through the garden? He knew Otherworld wasn't anything to take lightly, but it all seemed so unprovoked and out of his control. If there was one new peeve Shiloh was acquiring, it was feeling like his life wasn't his. It'd happened countless times before, in court, with being a principal, with magic in general.

"It's okay..." He tried to comfort him as he straightened himself out, the scream garbled through his mind like static. The bond fluctuated slightly, wavered, but did not break. "We have to—"

Jamie screamed.

And Shiloh went to speak, went to squeeze him, hug him, please god no it's okay; but he couldn't. He was frozen completely, his gaze fixated on Jamie with wide eyes. His lungs ached. The mind link buzzed warmly in his head.

saedusk

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

The scream was amplified by their joined power. Only Jamie was unfrozen, everything else pinned in place by his power- even Shiloh.

No noise was heard, not even the beat of wings or a breeze or the clouds that rolled in the sky. Ooze that had been slipping up the wisteria sapling was frozen as well, static and without movement.

saedusk

their combined power has amplified primal scream to a longer duration (one minute). think quick, jamie, and do something. movement will resume on my next post.

Melancholies

 

[saedusk]

All he'd wanted was for everything to stop. In his mind he could hear Shiloh comforting him, assuring him it would be okay, and he believed it, but it felt good to scream all the same. When he finally quit, everything, just like he'd wanted, seemed frozen in time. It was a power Jamie had no idea he possessed. Confusion set in, it drew deep lines on his face. Nothing was moving and there was no sound and it his heart skipped as he tried to put the pieces together.

"S-Shiloh...?" he muttered, staring back into wide eyes. He touched his face, but it didn't rouse him from his stupor, it wouldn't, and Jamie was slowly unraveling that fact.

As much as he wanted to stay with him, it clicked that he had to use this time to his advantage. They were in the middle of some kind of dreamland war, after all, and he had no idea how long this benefit would last. If he could do something, push back the shadow, then maybe they could gain the upper hand. Maybe they could win and finally wake up.

"I'll be back," and he kissed his cheek. The barrier would hold, he thought, in case time started up while they were apart.

At the sapling was where he stopped and he began to claw at the ooze, trying to pull it away. "This is our dream," he said, resolute, "You're not welcome here." He tugged and he thought about Shiloh, he reached out through the bond, he tried to feel what it felt like to resonate with plants and he tried to will that same strength into the wisteria sapling. "This is our dream." He remembered what it felt like to be able to create the sky and the sea and the sand, he reminded himself that this was still their world.

It was the only thing he could think to do.

Melancholies

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh was real frozen. Too frozen to even breathe.

saedusk

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

There was no response, not at first, but as Jamie's hands continued to pull and tug the ooze broke away. Whatever he was doing, it was working. Whether it was his resolution or his courage or his strength-

It did not matter, it was stopping the ooze that seemed to wisp away into nothing as he pulled it away.

Things seemed to slowly start back up, the ooze struggling against Jamie's hands but seemingly unable to do anything against it and the sapling itself ...

A bright, vivid purple glow grew as the sapling began to grow into the tree they had fallen asleep under. The wings of the moths were heard once more, though more and more were falling to the ground and the beast - the thing that had attacked them - was now screaming itself.

In pain as it seemed to fall apart under what Jamie was doing.

All the while, Jamie would feel a brush of wind against his cheek that almost felt like petals against his skin. The scent of wisteria blossoms in bloom hung in the air though they were not blossoming yet.

saedusk

Melancholies

 

[saedusk]

The world grew vibrant again with noise and movement as time righted itself and returned to the way it should be. Jamie didn't know what he'd done, but that hardly mattered now, not when his resolve appeared to push the creature back exactly as he'd hoped it would. It was literally his last idea, his last line of defense. How else did you fight a shadow in a dream?

A gentle but firm hand found its way to the wisteria tree's trunk, like a comfort to a friend, as he continued to will the creature out of their dreamscape. For now he refused to look at it in its entirety, instead he focused on the good. He focused on the gentle, phantom brush against his cheek, he focused on the scent of peace and relaxation, and he focused on the renewed warmth growing back into a fire at every corner of his mind as his connection with Shiloh was strengthened anew.

Can you hear me? the message reverberated in their conjoined minds. Are you okay? I'm sorry for freezing you. I think that was me...

Jamie shut his eyes and breathed deeply, fully. We gotta keep pushing it back. This is our dream...

Melancholies

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh came back into the world in a collapsed mess, gasping for air. It was undoubtedly the longest minute of his life, every second making his lungs ache and burn more and more, until finally he was released. He coughed, the pain probably palpable through their mind link.

I hear you. He slammed his fist down on the ground, the makeshift walls crumpling under his command. He was exhausted and more than ready for this ******** nightmare to end. This is our dream.

He coughed again. "This is our dream." He repeated out loud, the edges of his vision growing colorful and light and warm again. "********. Off," He wheezed, "********. OFF."

saedusk

Ashdown Whaler

attempting to peacebound the rest away >___>

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

It did not seem to matter that Jamie did not want to look at the being because the moment that Shiloh spoke, the moment he wheezed out the words, the dreamscape shuddered.

The entire world around them warped for a heartbeat. Wisteria blossoms were blooming, the tree having grown under Jamie's hand. It was the tree they had fallen asleep under, the blossoms swaying and moving.

They reached for and tugged both Jamie and Shiloh into branches of the tree protectively.

What started as a shudder, a gasp of breath, continued until the shrieking thing of bark and moths seemed to explode outwards. Inky black ooze was flung everywhere- Shiloh's command to <******** off apparently doing more than just that.

It destroyed whatever the thing had been. The pair was protected, however, by the blossoms and boughs of the wisteria tree.

Melancholies

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Between the thick, swaying branches, Jamie could barely see what had happened. The world outside was dark, covered in the ooze of the monster death throes, but here it was bright and beautiful. It kept him and Shiloh from harm. Jamie was latched to his boyfriend's arm, checking him for bruises or cuts or flowers forming where they might've been.

"I think you did it..." he said with a long, drawn out sigh, his forehead falling against Shiloh's gentle poof of hair. Except after a short moment he corrected himself, "We did it." They were a pair, partners, and they'd stood strong together. It was only with Shiloh's help that Jamie had started realizing how to accept his own accomplishments as something good. "Is this how we go home..?" his voice was a whisper, soft and tired. "I wanna wake up now."

Peeking to the side, he gave the tree a long look and added, "Thank you... for protecting us."

Melancholies

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Melancholies]

"We did it..." He articulated slowly as Jamie came to him, immediately falling against his grip. He was tired, ready to go home, somewhat bitter over the incident that they had been faced with. Between this and his own personal responsibilities and his magical responsibilities, it really was the last thing he needed. At least the smell of wisteria was filling his head, soothing his thoughts, putting to rest things that desperately needed to be addressed but wouldn't be. "I wanna wake up..." He sounded weak, but not in a physical sense, just a vulnerable one, an emotionally open one. He sighed.

"Are you thanking the tree...?" It took him a good second to realize that the tree was the one that harbored them in the heat of the storm. He looked up at the dangling threads of purple again. "Sorry you got hurt..." He murmured after a while, feeling a kinship due to his own plants.

Was it over?

saedusk

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

The blossoms brushed against Shiloh and Jamie, a feeling of tiredness coming over them both. They would feel it, aside from the bond that was between then, the presence of the wisteria tree.

Then they would hear it-

Wake up.

It was simple as breathing. From one beat of their hearts to the next, they would open their eyes to see that they were under the same wisteria tree they had fallen asleep under.

Something inky and oozey covered their legs and dotted up along their clothing. It was fading as they woke up, disappearing in puffs of smoke. Bits of it were also on the wisteria tree, similarly disappearing, but more importantly a pair of wide-eyes that were the same color as the blossoms were watching them from around the tree trunk.

saedusk

Melancholies

 

[saedusk]

The feeling of waking up again, this time for real, was surprisingly peaceful on the heels of what had just happened. It didn't take the edge off entirely, Jamie was still very tired and still very shaken, but at least nothing felt inherently wrong anymore.

Vague surprise lit behind his eyes as he sat up in time to see the evaporating ooze. They'd been dreaming, hadn't they? Though he felt awake now, he tried not to doubt that fact.

"Shiloh, are you okay?" Jamie asked, his voice soft and affectionate as he put a hand on his shoulder to try and rouse him. It was in the middle of learning closer to check on him that Jamie noticed they weren't alone. His eyes locked with the eyes around the tree and for a long, quiet moment, he stared.

"Who... are you?" he finally asked.

Melancholies

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh made a groggy sound. "H-huh...?" His eyes opened with blatant exhaustion, vague confusion... when he suddenly shot upright, his expression wild and alert like he was still on the battlefield. "Wait, we gotta—" He saw the black smudge dotting his clothes and screamed, his hand slapping against his legs as it vanished into smoke.

Shiloh Beaumont did not deal well with stress.

"I—I," He stopped when he saw the pair of eyes, "Who..." He took a deep breath, the plants under his skin itching. "Are you the tree?" He was scooting up still, hiding behind Jamie.

saedusk

Ashdown Whaler

 

[Ashdown Whaler]

A braid fell over a shoulder, the small figure slipping forward and walking uneasily on two feet in a dress that looked like it had been hewn from soft white leaves.

"W-W-Wis," the words were tried out like she was not used to speaking aloud. "You saved me." Jamie and Shiloh were both given a small, albeit shy smile, the girl leaning against the wisteria tree.

She might have been mistaken for human, if not for the places where it looked like her skin was bark.

saedusk

Melancholies

 

[saedusk]

The anxiety wafting off of Shiloh was near-palpable and it made Jamie's stomach twist with worry. Though he didn't say anything to soothe him directly, he did reach a hand around to grab his, to squeeze, and he scooted that tiniest bit further in front of him in hopes he'd feel safer.

Sometimes Jamie could believe how far he'd come from the sniveling kid stuck in a locker.

"Wis..." he repeated, smiling back, "So you are the tree?" Stranger things had happened. "Will, um, will you be okay now? Is that thing really gone?"

Melancholies

Ashdown Whaler