09-26-2021, 09:11 PM
iridian
She is so caught up in the myriad of things going wrong all around them that it takes far too long to notice the way this man is frozen in place like a piece of carved stone. Her eyes are everywhere but him, and maybe it is because she is huddled against the solidness of him now, but she still does not notice, does not realize, does not look up into a face whose expression she will know intimately well.
Her attention is fixed on a world that seems bent on hurting them both. A horizon too red to look at, storm clouds that fly past them at a pace that makes her too dizzy to watch. She knows dreams well enough to recognize when one is unraveling though, and so finally, finally, she looks up into his face and notes all the things she had been so stupidly blind to. She sees someone stiff-jawed and frozen, with deep furrows of tension traced across his jaw like lines drawn between distant constellations.
“Oh.” She says, and the word is a sound she presses against his dark shoulder like a kiss, touching her lips to the dark red of his storm-damp skin. “It’s okay.” She says again, and that voice is like gentle sunshine pressed against him. “It’ll be okay, I promise.” And it is a promise she has no business making, no way to keep, but she knows what it is to be trapped inside a nightmare you cannot escape.
She smiles up at him, watches him with two eyes the color of painted cerulean skies and nearly too wide for her delicate doelike face. “This is the first time I’ve ever left my dreams, so I don’t blame you for not trying it.” She is joking of course, and there is so much warmth in her crinkled eyes as she watches him, so much compassion for this stranger who feels suddenly like she’s known him forever. Is he even real? Or did she make him in her loneliness.
“Come on.” She tells him, and in case he needs more encouragement she takes a lock of his mane between her teeth to pull him back away from the shore and towards the center of this very narrow island. It is as much to ease his fear as it is to ease her own, because the frothing black waves feel like a pit of despair opened up inside her delicate chest. “I don’t want to look at it anymore, I’d rather look at you. I’ve never met anyone who can’t leave their dreams, I thought I was the only one.”
She keeps those luminous eyes on his face, keeps her wings tight against her sides so the wind won’t tear her feathers free. “It’s nice to meet you.” And it is so obvious that she genuinely means it, that even despite the raging seas and black storm clouds, it is worth it to be here with this new companion. This kindred soul. “My name is Iridian. I’ve been dreaming since I was born.” Wasn’t born, though. Not really, not without a body to wake in. But it doesn’t matter because she knows how unlikely it is that she’ll ever see him again anyway. “If you could leave, where would you go?” And just like that she begins the reshaping of this dreamscape that is not hers to alter, using his thoughts to steer them.
Her attention is fixed on a world that seems bent on hurting them both. A horizon too red to look at, storm clouds that fly past them at a pace that makes her too dizzy to watch. She knows dreams well enough to recognize when one is unraveling though, and so finally, finally, she looks up into his face and notes all the things she had been so stupidly blind to. She sees someone stiff-jawed and frozen, with deep furrows of tension traced across his jaw like lines drawn between distant constellations.
“Oh.” She says, and the word is a sound she presses against his dark shoulder like a kiss, touching her lips to the dark red of his storm-damp skin. “It’s okay.” She says again, and that voice is like gentle sunshine pressed against him. “It’ll be okay, I promise.” And it is a promise she has no business making, no way to keep, but she knows what it is to be trapped inside a nightmare you cannot escape.
She smiles up at him, watches him with two eyes the color of painted cerulean skies and nearly too wide for her delicate doelike face. “This is the first time I’ve ever left my dreams, so I don’t blame you for not trying it.” She is joking of course, and there is so much warmth in her crinkled eyes as she watches him, so much compassion for this stranger who feels suddenly like she’s known him forever. Is he even real? Or did she make him in her loneliness.
“Come on.” She tells him, and in case he needs more encouragement she takes a lock of his mane between her teeth to pull him back away from the shore and towards the center of this very narrow island. It is as much to ease his fear as it is to ease her own, because the frothing black waves feel like a pit of despair opened up inside her delicate chest. “I don’t want to look at it anymore, I’d rather look at you. I’ve never met anyone who can’t leave their dreams, I thought I was the only one.”
She keeps those luminous eyes on his face, keeps her wings tight against her sides so the wind won’t tear her feathers free. “It’s nice to meet you.” And it is so obvious that she genuinely means it, that even despite the raging seas and black storm clouds, it is worth it to be here with this new companion. This kindred soul. “My name is Iridian. I’ve been dreaming since I was born.” Wasn’t born, though. Not really, not without a body to wake in. But it doesn’t matter because she knows how unlikely it is that she’ll ever see him again anyway. “If you could leave, where would you go?” And just like that she begins the reshaping of this dreamscape that is not hers to alter, using his thoughts to steer them.
@lannister