Inbox (Somnia)

[cantilevers]

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telepath message; week 3/4ish? something

[opheliac]

How do you get rid of something that doesn't have a physical form?

Care less or care the same exact amount, I get it. But what else?

[cantilevers]

Depends what that something is. Are we talking a ghost, a memory, an emotion, a hallucination?

[opheliac]

Emotion.

[cantilevers]

Could you provide some context to this emotion that you want to be rid of?

[opheliac]

It's a thing that's screwing things up and making shit more complicated, and I can't shoot it down. Unless I aim the gun at my heart, and it has crossed my mind, and it's still up for consideration.

[cantilevers]

Emotions are messy and hardly straightforward. Talking about them sometimes help, analyzing why you feel the way that you do. I suggest you find someone you trust to open up about what's happening to torment you enough that you would consider turning a gun on yourself.

[opheliac]

... You've got to be joshing. Since when are dads someone a child shouldn't trust? Did I misplace a canister somewhere with the latest news?

[cantilevers]

You aren't giving me a lot to go on, so I suspected you might not feel comfortable opening up with the details.

1/2

[opheliac]

[ well... she said it once, so she can say it again, right? ugh. ]

mid-week one

[merged]

You holding up all right? Things have been getting weird. Make sure you pay attention to your surroundings, and turn around if you see any flashing lights.

[cantilevers]

Appreciate the warning. I've found myself in one of those black-out areas after the lights extinguished. Not particularly places I want to venture in unless I have to.

You're holding up okay?

[merged]

Yeah, they're kinda shitty. Who would've thought we'd see a place in an even worse state than Manhattan?

[ That gave her pause. ] As... okay as I can be. These, uh... spots remind me of home a bit. It sucks, but nothing I can't handle. [ She was tenacious. ]

[cantilevers]

It feels like most of the dream realms tend to be worse than this gigantic city. Is the bleed between the two this common or increasing?

You had destitute black holes of energy and emotion sucking terribleness where you're from? How are you still sane?

[merged]

It's not common. We've had moments of... fucked up shit, our reflections went a bit crazy once, but nothing like alternate realities or dream worlds or whatever.

[ She questioned her own sanity sometimes. ] Because I've lived my whole life dealing with completely insane bullshit. But I did think I was crazy for a long time. I could see things other people couldn't. Sometimes, it was like reality flipped beneath my feet, and the world got all wrong and awful. Other realities existed, all layered on top of each other. These spots remind me of that.

They're not just black holes. They're just another layer of reality. It's always existed; someone is just ripping the holes open.

[cantilevers]

And it seems like the whole vessel part complicates everything that this place has to offer as well. It seems our worst impulses on display.

It sounds like it. That has to take a toll, as you've indicated about not having friends and the like. Do you know why your reality was like that?

Well, this reality isn't all that great, and neither are the others.

[merged]

They can be, that's for sure. Offerings get the worst of it, though. [ From her understanding. ]

Yeah, I do. A cult burned a powerful psychic alive a couple of decades before I was born, and it had consequences. We were connected, so... I dealt with a lot of the nightmare she'd made. Not that I fault her. I'd have done the same thing.

At least it's never gonna be boring.

[cantilevers]

You aren't the first to indicate that either. I heard such in the tunnels before we were able to find our way to the surface.

It seems stupid for you to pay for the sins of other people when you had nothing to do with the death yourself. Do you happen to suffer from those nightmares here, or have you been momentarily freed from them?

Ah well, better than being dead, am I right?

week iv

[bogeyman]

Seriously... what the fuck all was that?

[ A longer pause. ] I saw some really fucked up things... you, too?

[cantilevers]

Nightmares, I think. And exhaustion.

[He sounded weary, drawn out and a touch off.]

There were so many of those monsters in those Voids. It was... relentless. You made it out with all your parts intact?

[bogeyman]

Yeah...

[ Exhaustion and anger boiling underneath it all. Rage will burn everything away - so he hopes, so he hopes. ]

Got called back when I almost fell into one... it called to me. [ A sneer. ] Tried to shove a dog into some fungus, but they're surprisingly vicious.

[cantilevers]

Sleep or something else in that darkness? [He hummed in agreement. He too had needed to defend himself.] You weren't injured, were you? Need some medical?

[bogeyman]

Something else. [ A beat. ] It told me the way to solve things for everyone was in those voids. Go in there and solve the problem.

[ A sensation of a shrug sent through their connection. ] Got a few scales torn off but otherwise, I'm fine.

[cantilevers]

Hmm, sounds like they were trying to play. There was a lot of indications that our light was meant to be extinguished, which feels like a permanent end.

[He hummed in sympathy.] You're a tough guy. Glad you made it mostly unscathed.

[bogeyman]

What's death here even look like? I mean - those Hosts - if we die, do we become those things?

[ Does anyone know? ] Glad you came out okay, too.

[cantilevers]

Dunno, but the Hosts seem like they are a fate worse than death. I wonder if anything of who they be are still in there, trapped in a body that's been hijacked.

[There were so few answers in this place. Or maybe he wasn't investigating hard enough.]

You a drinker at all?