@ Stone, audio | December 5

[scarsolderthanyou]

Who's shitting great idea was it to show some people something out in the middle of the lake and then kill them when they try to find it again?

[The querulous old man voice is currently very angry-sounding. There's a weird rumbling in the background of his voice. Stone might actually be... growling? Yeah, he's definitely growling.]

Did anyone see what did it? I want to find whatever that was and tear their throat out.

[He's a bit bloodthirsty when he's pissed off. Sorry, kids.]

Comments

[onlyeverdoubted]

Can't say we didn't learn anything?

[His smile is a little weak, but he really doesn't seem too upset, with Stone or in general. He's died twice in a month. Apparently he just has to get used to that. Kriffing hell.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

No flying over the lake. Got that lesson pretty clearly.

[He offers Bodhi a hand to haul himself up with.]

I wonder if they'll let us swim.

[onlyeverdoubted]

That, I can't help with.

[He hesitates, but he takes the hand out of politeness, putting no weight on it and letting go as fast as he can.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Probably for the best. Stone is not as steady as he used to be. But he gives Bodhi a clap on the shoulder once he's up.]

Nothing feels off, does it? Apparently dying can do funny things to a person, once we've already done it once.

[onlyeverdoubted]

No more than usual.

[Bodhi is perhaps a bit young for this sort of fatalism.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

Off from right before you died, idiot.

[The insult sounds vaguely affectionate, at least, rather than like he really wants to insult Bodhi's intelligence.]

Apparently when we come back, sometimes we lose something. Some poor metal kid lost the ability to see the color yellow.

[onlyeverdoubted]

[His acquiescence has less to do with finding affection in it and more to do with assuming anybody insulting him has a reason.]

No, yellow's alright. Um, you?

[scarsolderthanyou]

No changes, nothing I've noticed anyway. We might have gotten out all right, then. Keep an eye on yourself, just in case, though.

[He shakes his head.]

Irritating that we've been pretty soundly scolded for doing what the stupid dream seemd to ask us to do. Ugh.

[onlyeverdoubted]

...Your dream experience was apparently a lot clearer than mine.

[scarsolderthanyou]

[Stone motions for Bodhi to come along. Might as well get out of the church and out into the open.]

It wasn't like any dream I've ever had. Eliot called it dream magic. What was yours like?

[onlyeverdoubted]

[He's still not used to the way the word magic is applied, like it explains every stupid thing that happens. Presumably he just doesn't understand the rules and they do exist, but still. He's used to being able to get his head around things.]

Not much to it. I--we, I guess, they were, uh, shared somehow?

[He certainly didn't realize it at the time.]

Wandered around the town hall--that's, uh, what I heard it called? There were some odd notes and voices, and one creepy flier, and then it got a bit gory at the end, but, you know, dreams. None of it made much sense.

[Bodhi's dreams are usually frustrating, inscrutable, and unpleasant.]

[scarsolderthanyou]

So you died in yours, too, huh? We got eaten by a big metal underwater building. But there were boats all going out across the lake, and into an underwater tunnel, and we were basically shoved into one by the dream. So it seemed clear enough that's what we were supposed to be seeing.

[He frowns around at the church.]

What kind of creepy flier? Did it say anything?

[He assumes Bodhi means a flying person or thing, not a piece of paper.]

[onlyeverdoubted]

[The word is second-hand for him, too. Paper barely exists at home. All of which just makes the confusion worse.]

Something about a... ride? Like, the kind they have for children that spin you around fast? Only. Um. The words 'painless' and 'humane' were used.