foolishwren | 71. [Action/Video] Backdated to Sunday afternoon.

_{[You know when you wake up and you feel like there's a leaden weight sitting on your chest, stopping you from moving? Most of the time when that happens, it's because of sleep paralysis. Somewhat less of the time, it's a close encounter of the third kind. ... This time, however, it's a very large Furret curled up neatly in the middle of Heather's chest, taking advantage of the fact that her trainer both produces heat and is stationary and comfortable, AND of the fact that there is currently a brief moment in which nobody is looking over in this direction to shoo her away.]

[... Except that Heather's not going to be stationary much longer.]

[The first thing that happens that disrupts the vacant, sleeping stupor of Heather's face is a wince and a scrunched nose, because fluffy Furret tails are not the best things to have brushing up against your nostrils when you're coming out of a deep sleep.]}

Nhngngnh...

_{[Ffffh what was-- what. Oh, ow. Opening eyes that haven't seen light in a good seven days kind of hurts. And trying to talk through a throat that hasn't made a single noise kind of hurts too, which is why all that Heather manages at first is a sort of croak.]

[But that croak is enough to get SOMEBODY'S attention.]

[From the foot of the bed, Cujo snorts into wakefulness from where he's been faithfully sleeping on his trainer's ankles. With a deep wuff, he surges to his feet and joyfully clambers over the blanketed body, stepping on Arty and causing her to vacate her perch atop Heather's chest with an indignant hiss, until he's standing over her with a great big doggy smile and a paw on either side of her.]

[Heather squints up at him, scrunching up her face. On one hand, the sight of those floppy orange ears and big black nose is one for sore eyes, but on the other... oh god does she not want to see a dog right now after the kinds of dreams she'd been having...]

[Coughing and lifting her arms weakly, she tries to shove him away long enough for her to get her bearings.]}

Cooj, gimme some spac-- acklPHTHG OFF.

_{[No force in this world or any other could stop Cujo from greeting his favorite human being's return to wakefulness with lots of licking. Startled into a slightly more awake state, Heather makes a still-sleepy noise of disgust and shoves feebly at the Growlithe, scooting away.]}

Dammit, mutt, I mean i--

_{[Turns out, trying to slip out of bed after not moving for a week? Hurts, too. WHOMP. Face, meet hotel room floor. And possibly part of Henry's sleeping bag.]}

[VIDEO]

_{[A few minutes later, presumably after proving sufficiently to her father that she's not DEAD, the feed clicks on, revealing a very, very bedraggled Heather who looks like she went a week WITHOUT sleeping instead of spending the whole time unconscious.]}

Mornin'.... what'd I miss?

_{[ooc: Because the nightmare threads will likely affect CR pretty strongly, I'll tag them as long as anybody wants/it takes them to be finished! I'm also fine with discussing their outcomes, though, if anyone needs a conclusion right away.]}

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[He'll be pretty shaken up after it, actually... nightmares for a few days at least. But he merely grins at her and waves a hand]

'Course I am. Something as dumb as a dream can't keep me down.

Right. Heh. I knew that.

_{[Then she pauses-- and, sounding a little more uncertain...]}

Are... we okay?

_{[Because GOD KNOWS it's probably normal to be wary of someone after seeing that the contents of their head were that messed-up... even if they were only memories.]}

[... he actually kind of feels like he should ask her that, especially after she was basically shot at and forced to run for her life in a burning theater in his dream]

Why wouldn't we be?

_{[YEAH, SHE WAS ACTUALLY GONNA GET TO THAT... she hadn't forgotten the theater full of flames. She just... needed to make sure Kaito hadn't been too scarred by her demons, first.]}

I just thought...

... Never mind. Heh. Shouldn't have even asked-- I know you better than that.

Oi. You can't help what you dream.

Or what you remember.

Yeah, I know, but... you can't help being freaked, either.

[yeeeeah that's true, but he isn't about to admit to being freaked out verbally]

I'm fine. It's over now, right?

_{[She can tell, though. The only way you could witness THAT stuff without being freaked out was if you were insane...]}

Yeah... it's over.

[Kaito is only mildly insane]

And we never have to talk about it again, right?

_{[... She pauses for a second. Because ... yeah. There's still more she has to ask...]}

... Only if you really don't want to.

[he... doesn't really want to talk about what went on in his dream. he doesn't mind helping her out with some cathartic talk therapy though, and he tilts his head as he blinks at her]

... is there something else you wanna talk about as far as Silent Hill is concerned?

_{[Well, she's gonna at least ask-- just because... Well. It's what friends do.]}

... Well, I mean-- ... I'll, y'know, if you have any questions, I'll answer, but I meant--

... The, um. Theater.

That was... that was your dream, right?

. . .

[he tenses] Yeah. It was.

_{[Feeling the tension, she loosens her hold a little bit and turns her head to look at him.]}

... If you don't want to talk about it, it's all right.

[his gaze flickers away when she looks at him, shoulders shrugging]

It wasn't exactly a twisted memory I wanted to relive.

Sorry... I probably shouldn't have brought it up.

You gonna be okay?

S'fine.

[a grin, small, but genuine]

I asked you about yours, didn't I? I'll be fine.

All right.

_{[Smiling back, she gives him another squeeze before letting go entirely and running her fingers through her hair, making it stand on end. She's ALREADY got the worst bedhead ever from being asleep for a week.]}

Speaking of asking, though-- I... if there was anything you wanted to... know about what you saw... I can at least shed a little light.

_{[She trusted Kaito more wholly than almost anyone else she'd met in Johto, after all... Under other circumstances, the subject might not have ever even come UP, but now that he's seen a demon from her past face-to-face...]}

[he lets out a relieved breath. SAFE FROM TALKING ABOUT ~*FEELINGS*~ YES

He reaches out to flatten her hair as he speaks]

... I think what I want to know most is... [and here, he makes a face] What the heck were those weird things in the sewer?

_{[SHE KNOWS WHEN NOT TO PRESS. A glimpse of some traumatic memory she'd only seen after winding up in his head by supernatural means was NOT something to press. Wouldn't be fair.]

[She lets him flatten her hair out, too tired to bother batting his hand away like she normally might.]}

The pinkish dinosaur things?

I don't know if they have a name... if any of the things there have a name, really. I called 'em 'Numb Bodies'.

... They were one of the first things I started running into. When the normal world went away.

[He really does need to learn to talk about his fears and feelings, but-- as much as he trusts Heather, that is just... something he has never been comfortable with.]

Numb bodies? [yeesh] That's a creepy name.

_{[It takes time, and she's willing to wait. She's not terrible at sharing her own feelings... the trouble is just finding people she's willing to share to.]}

Yeah...

Like 'Nobodies', but... y'know, numb.

_{[A frown flickers across her face again and she picks at a scratchy bit of the blanket with one finger, letting her eyes focus on that one spot because it was just... easier than directing them somewhere else.]}

... The first time I killed one, I noticed how... cold they were.

Like a dead thing.

_{[She doesn't still have her arm around him, so he may not feel the shudder that runs through her that time, but her expression makes it obvious enough that there's more to her reasons for naming it that particular turn of phrase than just the fact that they were cold...]

[And good at sharing or not, she's not totally sure she wants to confess the real reason. What they made her think of. A child born already dead is a nobody...]}

71. [Action/Video] Backdated to Sunday afternoon.

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