you made hell feel like home; any

[rapt]

there is a dream in the space between the hammer and the nail ------ the dream of about-to-be-hit, which is a bad dream ------------ but the nail will take the hit if it gets to sleep inside the wood forever He is still staring at the monster when the world briefly ends. The desert dissipates, gone in a blink, but the monster stays. Smiling and terrible and beautiful, he stays. There is no sand beneath their feet – it seems there is nothing beneath their feet at all, yet Rapt has no sensation of falling. He has not taken his eyes from the monster, breathless in his rapture, but he hears her. My little boy, she says, and yes, he must belong to her, to that cold touch of fangs, that voice like silk. But he also belongs to the monster, that man who laid fear into his heart in the sweetest way. He takes a step toward the monster. He feels the familiar curl of fear in his heart as he comes closer. He looks back, to see if she follows, or merely watches. What big teeth she has! She seems more beautiful than he recalls. Everything is more beautiful. Is he? It doesn’t matter. What matters is this monster. Monsters don’t like to be kept waiting, she says. “No,” he agrees, voice soft, “no, they don’t.” He takes the final steps forward, falls to his knees at the monster’s feet. Only then, does he say his name. “Pollock,” he says. There are tears on his cheeks, from fear, from love, from happiness. “You came back.” He looks back to Kagerus. “You’re incredible,” he says. To her. To Pollock. To this world. rapt caius x else

[Kagerus]

Out with the golden we sew, and the lower past that crawls.
Now, to the doorway you run, to the girl that's not lost.

The Abyss throbs around us, thrumming: an eldritch energy. Its ripples caress our hides with their otherworldly fingers and push us together: bringing me closer to that which so quickens my blood and blinds my inhibitions.

He seems more beautiful than I recall. Beyond lovely. Ethereal, bringing saliva to my tongue. A demonic beam of sunlight, piercing this forsaken Abyss.

No, no they don't.

Soundlessly his knees meet with a ground that is not there, the boy: falling in awe of his monster. I shudder as I watch, having followed behind the boy. Allowing him to lead - to weave through the complexities of his own imagination, to raise the hairs off my skin. There are tears in his eyes, on his cheeks, glistening, glimmering - they shine eerily, though no light source reflects off of them.

You're incredible.

I step forward at his words, ignoring Pollock, reaching for the one who commands every drop of attention from me. Head lowered, fanged mouth seeking out the star-bright tears lining his face, wiping them away, memorizing the hollow shapes of his bones. I shudder. From ecstasy, from fatigue - he is the first one I have brought into the dream world, and I can feel my power slipping. Pollock's figure becomes muddled, unfocused, and his mouth opens as if to speak.

"We don't have much time left here, Rapt," I breathe into his ear, my voice cracking with raw emotion, as if I can feel the despair radiating from his boyish heart. "But I promise..."

"I'll always bring you back."

The horned stallion speaks then, surging back into focus, so forcefully that even I second guess the reality of his being. My ears press back at the sound of his gravel-voice, wincing in awe of the monster.

"You waited..."

In the next breath, he dissolves into the Abyss, surrounding us on a molecular level. My legs tremble, quiver, I lean on Rapt for support though how much he has to give is questionable.

"Are you ready to go back?" I ask of him. "It's going to feel..." I close my eyes. There is no time to explain. Reaching out, I clasp his flesh between my fangs, tethering him to myself as we fall. And this time, there truly is a falling sensation - as if all the weight in our bodies sinks to our stomachs and drags us through the Abyss, a kind of psychedelic spiraling that leaves me needing to vomit.

I open my eyes. On my tongue, flat teeth - but also, blood. His blood.

Our eyes meet.

Kagerus

sweet nothing

@[rapt]

I don't know if you've ever laid down on your back in the bathtub while the water drains around you, and just went completely limp and dissociated from your body, but that sinking-sucking-falling feeling is what I tried to describe, except a horse has no concept of a bathtub lmao.

[rapt]

there is a dream in the space between the hammer and the nail ------ the dream of about-to-be-hit, which is a bad dream ------------ but the nail will take the hit if it gets to sleep inside the wood forever He is prostrate in the abyss, in terrible worship before the monster. She is there, too, a presence beside him, a beautiful and wicked goddess, taking in his tears. She licks his fear and wonder and rapture off her lips and in that moment he’d give her anything, he’d crack open his ribcage so she could feast on his heart. The monster before him shifts, like the sand had, blurring for a moment, and she’s there saying we don’t have much time and only then does he remember this isn’t reality, not fully, that this is her power. He’s unable to speak, but he nods. I’ll always bring you back. He opens his mouth to respond, to praise her, to thank her, to speak his devotion – but then his monster surges forth, clearer and stronger than ever, stretching out towards Rapt. You waited… the monster says, and, breathless, he says, “yes, of course, always.” He stretches out too, tries to touch him, but then the monster is gone, dissolved, and there is only blank whiteness before them, and for a moment it is just them, pressed against one another, the only spots of color in the entire world. The only living things. And then there’s a moment of pain, a bit of reality as she sinks her teeth into his flesh, and then the abyss spirals out, away, and their colors spin – gold and brown and white and white and white and red - and then his eyes are closed, and the world shifts, and suddenly he can smell the world around them, earth and trees and life. And her. Looking at him. Eyes meeting. He’s trembling, but he stays upright. For a man who has been dreaming, he’s quite exhausted. “You,” he says, breathless, “are a wonder.” rapt caius x else

[Kagerus]

Out with the golden we sew, and the lower past that crawls.
Now, to the doorway you run, to the girl that's not lost.

Reality seems hollow after our fall through the abyss. The green leaves on the trees are dull, the trees themselves almost immaterial. The air is at once too thin and too thick, not uncomfortable but unsatisfying. He is the only figure that remains whole, golden, savory, the only one to whom I can cling as the disappointment of wakefulness settles beneath my skin.

You are a wonder.

He is shaking, trembling, and it shows in his voice. The dreamer in me longs to reach out, to pull him to my chest and whisper about where I will take him and that which we will see together. But she, the person I am when I am not dreaming, she is not pleased. She knows of my sins and disapproves: frowns at how my hands pull Rapt's strings, snarls as I call him my own and place my mark on his skin.

I am at war with myself.

The hollowness of our surroundings only feeds my frustrations, and though I try to speak, my mouth is only just too dry, jaw just too clenched, for words to form. Our eyes have not left each others.
He is so golden - pure - marred by the monster.
I want him.

I want him.

"This shouldn't have happened." My head is shaking, eyes finally falling, embarrassment and anger flush on my cheeks. "I --"

But I am already gone.

Kagerus

sweet nothing

@[rapt]

I'd love love love to have another thread with them. If you want to throw up a post where Rapt finds Kagerus (it's not likely she would approach him) I'd be /so/ down. River, forest, anywhere. I'm down.