Is There Someone I Can Pay To Let Me Go

[wilder]

Who: Zelos Wilder & YOU
What: Take a guess, no really, take a wild guess
When: All throughout the nightmare plot
Where: Dreamland
Rating: PG-13 to R....I sure hope it doesn't get higher than that.

[Hi everyone how has your weekend of nightmares gone? Terribly? Great! Ready for more? No? Too bad.]

[If you're traveling around in the nightmares, you'll come across an area that seems like no one has turned on the lights - it's pitch black and you can't see past that]

[Overall the space gives off a cold feeling. Really cold, like it should be snowing in here. Sound is easy to pick up, in fact it's almost like someone turned up the volume way loud on the world. You can hear your own heartbeat, that small squeak of your sneakers, your own breath. If you have bad lungs? Well now you know. Cut out those cigarettes or inhaling chemicals already! You sound terrible!]

[There doesn't seem to be anyone else around. In fact you get the overwhelming sense that you are nothing short but purely alone and that's the way it always is. ]

[Though, that will probably change real soon now that there are spectators]

[OOC: Same deal as Allen's post a couple days ago. Nightmares will sorta be tailored based on people's desires level of trauma or aspect. You can find out what sort of stuff you can be in for here! Anyone's welcomed!]

Comments

[wilder]

[The boy next to you seems to be thinking along the same lines. ]

Mother! You're bleeding- [calling out in hopes that a maid will hear] Someone! Someone come quickly!

[Mother meanwhile will turn up and actually look at the two for once. It's hard to tell which one she is speaking to, but she has a slight smile on her face when she speaks]

You should have never been born.

[And then, the life leaves her eyes and she completely falls]

[persequor]

[ There is white noise in her ears and her eyes are wide and her mind does not dare make the connection, why is she so still, why isn’t she moving, what did she say, Mother, get up!

Arya touches her hair—"Your hair is pretty, Mother. I wish mine was as pretty." "Do you want to hear a secret? I wish mine were as beautiful as yours, darling girl."— as underneath her the white turns red, red dissolving the white, red eating it away, too much red, redredred.

She still strokes her mother's hair as the words finally make sense. She can consider them. She does not feel them. Arya's life had been gone that day in Baelor's sept. Whatever was left seeps into the snow with her mother's blood. ]

[wilder]

[The boy meanwhile seems frozen, still holding onto his mother as he stares at the world that is quickly turning red. ]

[There's the distant sounds of people running, it seems subdued since whoever had this memory wasn't listening.]

[The only thing solid? Is when a grown man's hand touches Arya's shoulder. The true owner of this memory. He is standing there, watching this scene. And not too thrilled that someone he knows is here.]

Arya. What are you doing here?

[persequor]

[ Arya startles. Her mouth opens several times—a fish gasping at air—but she cannot answer him. She cannot find her voice. She cannot even find it in her to question how he is here or where here is. ]

[wilder]

Arya.

[The woman that was once Cat changes, if Arya looks. No longer Tully red, but a woman with long golden hair that looks as soft and wavy as her son's. Her face lacks the age of Cat's, instead she looked so young and flawless. Not a single laugh line or wrinkle. Vacant blue eyes stare out]

[Zelos meanwhile doesn't know what to do. People are not supposed to see this. Especially not people with enough on their plate. He feels exposed and afraid]

[persequor]

[ When she notices the change, Arya pushes away from the body in surprise. ]

Wha—? Who...?

[ She casts wildly about for her mother. ]

My mo— My— Where— She was here! My mother—! [ Arya seizes Zelos' wrist. ] Help me find her! She was hurt! She was bleeding! I don't know what— We have to find her!

[wilder]

Arya- darling!

[He'll try to help pull her away. Away from the mess. The boy meanwhile continues to sit there, as if completely unaware of what's going on around him]

Your mother's fine! Whatever you saw- it wasn't her, okay?

[persequor]

No! I saw her! She came out with that boy—

[ The boy. Whoever did it. He must still be here. Arya looks around as if she might catch sight of the assasin. ]

Don't sit there! [ She screams at the boy, struggling to break free of Zelos' grasp. ] Get down!

[wilder]

[The boy doesn't move, he's looking past his mother now at across the gardens, where several people are now restraining a very crazed looking woman that is screaming her head off]

Don't stop me! That kid...I'm going to kill that Zelos! Why is he the Chosen one?! If that woman hadn't gotten in the way, I would have killed him!

[Zelos meanwhile does what he can to look away from that himself, though he's not having a whole lot of luck with it. The red is everywhere]

[persequor]

[ Arya ceases struggling. She'd been warned. Her dancing master had said so. Being troubled only brought more trouble. Swallowing her rioting emotions, Arya looks at the scene again. The answer stared at her the entire time. She was too blinded to see it. Still too unwilling to buy such impossibilities. ]

This is a memory. It's yours. [ That's Zelos as a child. That's his mother. ]

[wilder]

[There's a long pause before he answers]

Yes, it is.

[persequor]

[ He's still staring…

Abruptly coming to a decision, Arya pushes away from Zelos. She hurries back to the boy (Zelos, this is Zelos too). She touches him lightly on the shoulder so he's aware of her before covering his eyes. Kneeling beside him, she pulls him against her like she would Bran when they were little and Robb and Jon would try to frighten them. ]

Don't look. It's worse when you look. You don't want to remember them like this.

[wilder]

[The boy seems stiff and tense in the hold, as if he's not used to this sort of thing at all. But he doesn't pull away, no, he's in too much shock to do that. He makes a small gasp when she covers his eyes, but besides that? The only sound he's making is very quiet crying]

[persequor]

[ Still covering his eyes and half-carrying him, Arya drags him to his feet to pull him back to the house. She doesn't try to tell him things will be fine. Nothing will ever be fine. He'll find out without her needing to say anything. Still she tugs insistently, continuing to hold him against her. ]

Come on. We're going this way.

[wilder]

[Yep you'll have to drag and pretty much half carry him to the house. He doesn't understand what's going on and scarcely aware of Arya's presence at the moment, the kid's head is too busy flashing through the scene. There was blood everywhere...his mother...the words she said...he knew the killer too, that was Seles's mother. She...she wanted him dead. He knew she didn't seem to like him, but to do that...]

[Was he really the cause of so much misery?]

[persequor]

[ When she's starting to fumble for grip, she stops to fix him on her back. She gives him a piggyback ride back to the house. But the time she reaches it, her fingers have gone numb and her lungs ache. Arya stubbornly refuses to quit until they're inside and she drops them both to the ground. While catching her breath, she shakes him. ]

Boy. Boy, look at me.

[wilder]

[The drop to the ground, the change of the temperature and the scenery change seems to stir him. He looks at her, his eyes completely lost and void of any of the light they held before everything happened]

Who...are you?

[persequor]

Arya. Don't listen to what she said. When people die— [ She swallows. Her voice is steady as she lies. ] —they-they can say the wrong thing. Dying does weird things. They say things they don't mean and sometimes they can't fix it because they don't have the time anymore. She smiled. You saw it, didn't you? She was trying to say something else.

[ She would take it on herself, say the words were meant for her, but she is not sure she can say it. Not when she cannot think it without wanting to hide. ]

[wilder]

[he listens to the words. Unfortunately? Even if he's only a child, even if he won't have his special abilities for years from now- it's still Zelos. Seeing the little things was always his natural talent. He knew his mother- that was the first time she smiled at him. That was the first time she gave him eye contact no less. The rest of the time, she did everything she could to ignore his existence. It's why he worked so hard to try to please her. To get her to love him like he so badly craved.]

[But how do you express that? He doesn't know how. He knows she's trying to be nice. He sniffs a little and...shakes his head]

[persequor]

[ ...she tried to be nice. Angry now, she glares. ]

Well, she's wrong.

[wilder]

[He now looks up at Arya again, surprised. ]

W-What?

[persequor]

You heard me. She's wrong.

[wilder]

[What is this language you're speaking it's strange]

But..

That was Seles's mother. She was aiming for me! If I hadn't-

[And then another thought occurs to him. One that manages to get even more fear and concern into him]

- Seles! That was her mother! They're going to take her mother away!

[persequor]

[ Arya seizes him by the shoulders. ]

That's her fault. She's a terrible mother. If she really loved Seles, she would never have done anything to her brother. That's not what real [ stable ] mothers do.

[ Cat put up with Jon without ever trying to shank him. Cat remains best mother. ]

[wilder]

[Not if the brother is the Chosen, he thinks but keeps to himself. His mind is racing too much]

But she's the only parent she had- father's gone!

[he grits his teeth a little.]

I have to make sure she's okay! She's my family!