[ oo2 ]

[icasm]

FORM: crystal
SENDER: Loki
RECIPIENT: all of Riftwatch
NOTES: nada

Since dreams are a popular topic:

Where do they come from? The Fade, here, of course, but what else is at play?

For those that don't know and don't particularly care for the first question: are you a better person than the one in your dreams or a worse one?

Comments

[altusimperius]

Sin... apsies?

[icasm]

Ah.

There is... power, in the brain. Electricity. Small lightning that moves beneath the skin, under the bone.

don't go too fast he'll never recover

[altusimperius]

what,

[icasm]

You can't see it.

[altusimperius]

[weakly,] then how do you know?!

[if there's one thing he knows, it's that Loki would never steer him wrong]

[icasm]

Complicated, it's...

There are ways of seeing inside a living body. With machines. Without causing harm. It doesn't really matter, the how part of it.

[altusimperius]

[the distinct sound of someone completely mentally unraveling without speaking a word]

[icasm]

Ah, shit.

Benedict. You'll never see it.

[altusimperius]

[faintly,]

is it... is it from the demons?

[icasm]

No, no, not at all.

[altusimperius]

How can you be sure?

[icasm]

My people have known about it for a long time, and we're familiar with demons.

[altusimperius]

[an uncertain sound, somewhere between a whimper and a sigh.]

private;

[icasm]

Feel free to tell me to mind my own business, but...

Are you alright, Benedict?

[altusimperius]

[He's on the verge of saying just that, but there's a primal part of Benedict that prevents it. No matter what he does, and no matter which version it is, he'll always have a weakness for Loki.]

I have to stop dreaming.

[Perhaps it's a mistake to go down this road at all, but he'll go mad if he doesn't say it eventually.]

[icasm]

Not possible, [ he says softly, ] and probably not terribly safe.

What's happening in your dreams?

[altusimperius]

I can't--

[Don't go spilling everything, idiot, the stakes are too high and your track record too fraught,]

--I shouldn't. Talk about it.

[icasm]

Is something worse going to happen if you do?

[altusimperius]

It's likely.

[icasm]

If you're in trouble, or going to be, I need you to tell me.

[altusimperius]

[With a miserable wryness:] So you can get ahead of it.

[icasm]

Yes.

Do you think that's not possible? For whatever trouble you're in?

[altusimperius]

It could benefit someone with the right agenda, if that's what you're asking.

[He's beginning to shut down, close off; there's a bitter wariness to his tone that wasn't there before.]

[icasm]

That's not what I'm asking.

I'm asking if I can help you.

[altusimperius]

[As if realizing he's walked himself into a trap of his own making, and has no idea how to get himself back out again:]

No. It's. It's fine. [He doesn't mean it, and doesn't even try to. But the shreds of self-awareness he's gained from his time in Riftwatch are holding together despite his exhaustion, and already he's regretting even slipping up this much.]

...thanks. [A consolation, in case Loki was really trying to help; Bene doesn't have the capacity to decide what he believes, not at the moment.

The connection goes dead.]