[mingle] what's the dream and what's the reality?

[lovetheme]

Lately the castle's nights have been very clear and almost warm, even up so high among the clouds as they are. But regardless of the weather, they are generally peaceful nights, and few things seem to stir during them...apart from the castle's inhabitants, be it with late-night roving or with sleep. The dreams, by extension, are at least undisturbed...if maybe not always pleasant. That sort of thing tends to vary by the person, of course.

But now--and for several nights, consecutively--the castle residents may find their dreams starting to take on stranger shapes: memories they've never had, friends that don't usually arrive, strangers they've never seen. These odd impressions might cling and continue to confuse even upon waking, vivid as they were; was it really just a dream, or maybe something more...? Does that newcomer in your dream remember you there too, in the daytime?

Either way, there seems to be an strange energy in the air during these nights. And it's bringing dreams together.

((ooc: And here's the catch-all post for the dream-sharing event! Feel free to top-level with your character's dreams here, or thread around in others! The event should only last about a week, but backtagging is eternal c: The ooc planning post can be found here!))

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[lovetheme]

Lucas follows Sans dutifully, the promise and the brief flicker of eye-lights in blank sockets making for a tiny spark of hope in the darkness that presses all around. Being able to reassure Sans even just a very little bit is better than being unable to do anything at all--and in a place like this, Lucas has no doubt that every small bit probably counts for quite a lot. (He just hopes it'll be enough...)

Stealth never really was his strong suit, to be honest, and water tends to be noisy when you touch it no matter how careful you try to be. But Lucas still tries his very best to be as quiet as Sans, as they wade further and deeper into the shining marsh. He wonders if they'll need to swim, eventually, and if Sans is any good at that. He'll just need to try and help, if it comes down to it...but this train of thought is distracted by the soft and aimless song that filters to them from nearby, and Lucas stops at Sans' tug. He stares at the ghostly fish-like thing as it drifts past through the air, at its too-gaping jaw. It must like singing very much. He wishes he could help with mending its poor jaw. But from Sans' reaction, Lucas can guess that reaching out to the singing fish would be a very bad idea.

Sans' question manages to tear his attention away from the fish. Lucas blinks down to him. "...Yes," he whispers back, and his glance slides away to cast out over the water. "I used to wonder all the time. ...I still wish some things didn't happen the way they did. Or--that I had done some things differently in the past..."

Is that--a red mailbox, sitting at the edge of the water some distance away? Lucas stares at it for a moment, and then tears his eyes away, shifting to start moving again. Away from that direction. "But there's not a lot you can do, I don't think. About those things."

[sansational]

That is a red mailbox, sitting at the edge of the water. The color stands out especially sharply, in this dim, blue place. Sans stares at it fixedly for a moment, head slightly tilted. A part of him very much wants to open it. He even knows that there will only be something terrible inside. But the itch is there to open it anyway.

In the end, it's Lucas' obvious hesitation that holds him back. He owes the kid that much. That thought comes clearer than a lot of things here, and so is even harder to ignore. Sans carries on instead, alongside him.

"but even if you can't fix what happened before...shouldn't you try to stop those bad things from happening again?"

Maybe it's just part of the strange harmonics of the cave, but other sounds echo around them, sounding as the ripples spread around them. The sound of something tearing, the sound of something being chopped by a knife, and something like a distant explosion.

"and if you were partly responsible for the bad things happening in the first place...shouldn't you be punished?"

The lights up above grow a little dimmer.

[lovetheme]

Seemingly it's just the one mailbox right now, sitting there on the water's edge, but now Lucas isn't so sure if he wants to take the risk of spotting any more of them. (And spotting--what comes with them...) He stares down at the shimmering water they continue wading through, trusting Sans to keep them relatively on track--wherever they're going. And he listens, both to Sans' questions and to...the other sounds that start rising up now.

In a cave like this, it's difficult to tell where they're coming from or how close they might be, but they send a deeper chill through his thoughts all the same. Is it getting a little darker already? Lucas' wading steps waver a little, but it's a longer pause before he finally answers, voice very quiet.

"Stopping those bad things from happening again...yes. That's something you could do. If you can't fix what happened before..." Lucas glances upwards, considering the glowing stones on the ceiling. "But needing to be punished...depends. A lot of people might have a different idea of what should be done, about something like that. So I don't know. But..."

He looks over sidelong to Sans, finally. "I do know that--you can't stop bad things from happening, and punish yourself at the same time. It can't be both. If you do more of one, you can't do enough of the other to help. ...You have to choose."