Who: Nic and Lem When: late night, Friday, Jan 12th Where: Nic’s room Status: complete
It had been a weirdly tiring week for Lem. Not much had happened-happened beyond the visit from the richest man in town, but she still found herself feeling sluggish and lethargic. Maybe it was just the winter. Lem liked snow to a certain point, but all the cold and lack of sunlight could really drain a person. She felt better when she was over at the Castell house with Nic, so she’d been making a point to do that pretty often. Including deciding to crash with him on Friday night.
While their bodies were curled up warmly together under blankets, Lem was dreaming something innocuous ... until she wasn’t any longer. She felt the shift happen and immediately knew that she had been pulled into Nic’s dream, the way she always knew when she was seeing something Vex was seeing. She was a conduit, after all, that was what she did. Where she ended up was horrible, and Lem felt completely helpless as she watched Nic and his telepathic friends be afraid and confused. She was invisible to all of them, forced to be just a witness to whatever was going to happen.
And boy, did things happen. Lem screamed as she saw the fog and what was inside of it, barrelling down towards all of them. Then everything got chaotic, lightning from Neil and water from Nic and all the shouting and panic, and Lem saw Carson start to change. She tried to yell warnings to them, but they naturally went unheard, and she heard the roar she’d only heard once in the basement -- and then it all stopped.
Lem woke up right as Nic did, her body jerking. She realized all at once that she was freezing and the bed was soaked. For a second she thought it was that pulsing gross stuff that had covered everything in the dream, but it just smelled like water to her. She also realized that they’d just received a warning. Something bad was coming.
It had been so long without a group dream that Nic had thought they were done with them. That’s what he would have liked anyways. They were always terrifying in their own way, in large part because they all felt so powerless. This one was no different, except this time, when things started to get weird and creepy, his powers went haywire. Water was manifesting everywhere, sending up little spikes of water that instantly froze, splashing at them and tripping them up. Never in his life had he had so little control over his element, but it wasn’t just him. Neil’s lightning was acting up and Nic feared they’d end up electrocuting someone if they didn’t stop it soon.
That was the least of their worries. Not only were the fog monsters descending on them, but Carson started to shift. Nic was yelling at them to get back, frantically trying to figure out what to do, when he suddenly awoke with a gasp. He was struck at once with the feeling of water around him and he sat up to find he’d somehow soaked the bed sheet while dreaming. “Lem,” he said urgently, sure she had to be awake after all that, but needing to know she was okay. Dread was settling deep in his chest and it continued to spread even as he caught his breath.
“I’m here,” Lem answered immediately, her voice completely awake. She started pushing the wet blankets off of them, her heart still pounding hard in her chest. That had been bad, all of it was bad, like the fog was coming back and this time it would be worse. She couldn’t know that, of course, but what else could it mean? Even if it was the god speaking to them, that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to be terrifying and bloody, like the last time. Lem reached out to touch Nic in the dark, just to reassure him with a physical sensation, but they couldn’t really linger in the cold-wet. “I saw it all,” she added, so he would know she didn’t need him to explain any of it.
There wasn’t a lot that scared Nic, but the dream left him shaken, the damp sheets proof that he’d lost control in a way he’d never experienced before. He reached back for Lem, ran his hands up her arms, then held her close, his forehead pressed to hers for a heartbeat. She was okay. He was okay. And the quickest little mental outreach told him the others had survived as well. They could regroup in the morning, when he’d had a chance to pull himself together. “That was bad,” he told her softly. “It’s never been that bad. It’s never done this.” He pushed at the wet sheets in disgust. “That felt like…like an omen.”
Lem let him hold onto her for that moment, her hands on him to be reassuring. They hadn’t been wearing any clothes when they went to bed, and she was rapidly getting cold, so Lem couldn’t sit there for too long. “It did,” she agreed as she climbed over Nic to get off the bed. Her sweater-coat was draped on a chair and she picked it up to wrap around herself. “Can you make a fire?” The bed felt pretty damn wet, so she didn’t think changing the sheets would even help. They might have to sleep somewhere else tonight, unless Nic could do some magic to take water away. “Do you think ... think the god is telling us it’s coming back?” she asked, the words a little unsteady as she started to shiver.
Fire wasn’t Nic’s thing, he couldn’t manipulate it like Zania could, but he could set a fire in the fireplace without too much trouble. That was one of the nice things about houses this old, they had fireplaces in the bedrooms. He lit it up, then pulled on some boxers before stepping out to retrieve a dry blanket for Lem. If he was cold, then she must be freezing. “I think it’s possible,” he nodded as he wrapped the blanket around her. “The stuff covering the ground… That was new. And the shadows that looked like people… It’s always been just us and, that one time, Jane. I don’t know if that means we’re not alone, that there are more of us, or if they’re a threat.” The figures hadn’t attacked them, but their arrival corresponded with the moment Nic had lost control of his magic.
Lem moved in close to the fire as soon as it sprang to life -- one of the biggest conveniences of having a magical boyfriend -- and she gratefully accepted the blanket when he came back with it. She’d pulled her hood up over her damp hair, and she settled down on the floor with her legs crossed, looking up at Nic. “All of it seemed pretty threat-y,” she murmured, then nibbled on her bottom lip for a second. The whole dream had been scary, but everybody losing control of their powers had compounded that scariness. It felt like a warning, like something telling them they wouldn’t be able to do anything once whatever was coming arrived. Lem took Nic’s hand and pressed her cheek to the back of it. “I hate that everything’s so fucking cryptic,” she muttered.
“Me too,” Nic sighed, giving Lem’s hand a squeeze. “I feel like we’re supposed to know what to do by now, but… maybe if we get together and talk about it, something new will come up. Besides that Carson’s a werewolf.” He had the feeling that that might distract from everything else though, to be fair, it was a pretty big deal, especially to people who might not have even known werewolves existed. “I feel like there’s something we’re missing. Jules…” He gave a little shake of his head. Something had been going on with her right before they all woke up, but he’d been so focused on his out of control magic that he didn’t have a clue what it was. “We’re all in over our heads, but I feel bad for her. She’s only, like, eighteen.”
It did seem like there was some message they all should have gotten by now, but damned if Lem knew what it could be. They all seemed to be lost and confused about all of this, so at least she knew it wasn’t just her being an idiot. Lem raised her eyebrows at the first part, her mouth a little O before she asked, “They don’t know about Carson?” She had assumed that everybody in their brain-group had been aware that there was a werewolf among them. This seemed like a bad way to find out. “But yeah, Jules ... when you all meet up, do you want me to go? Since I saw the dream this time? And maybe she would feel better with another girl there, like, closer to her age?” Lem didn’t usually like teenage girls, but she would go help out if she could.
“Carson being a werewolf didn’t seem related. He can’t control it, so it isn’t much of a skill, and I think he’d like as few people to know as possible,” Nic explained. It had felt smart to keep quiet about it at the time, but now he realized it had been a bad idea. It would’ve been so much better to find out when Carson was human, outside a horrific dream. “Maybe,” he nodded as he considered bringing Lem along. “I know Neil won’t like it, but it might help. Especially since you saw the dream yourself. And you’ve got skills yourself.” He had no idea how that worked with his magic or Neil’s lightning powers, but maybe it would be useful? He’d do just about anything at this point to get them pointed in the right direction.
Lem could definitely understand Carson wanting to keep the werewolf thing a secret -- it was a huge, scary thing. She’d been a direct witness to it, and she knew that normal people who hadn’t seen the things she’d already seen in her life would shit their pants over it. She had just assumed that the people directly connected to his brain would know what was going on. Lem rolled her eyes a bit at the part about Neil. She didn’t care what he liked or not. They were all dealing with a serious problem, and they should want all the help they could get. “I think I’m just more like ... an enhancer? I dunno,” she said, wrinkling her nose a tiny bit. “So I dunno if it’ll be helpful, but I’m at least like, another witness.” Lem wanted to help, even if it was in mundane ways. “And since I know about the flesh god ... maybe Vex should come too?”
Nic hated when Lem called the creature the flesh god. It felt like she was giving it more power than it had, elevating it to god status, plus there was the idea that being touched by it was a good thing. Nic couldn’t buy into it and was pretty sure the others would think she was crazy. If he brought Vex along, it would be even worse. “Maybe,” he said, unwilling to commit to bringing them both at the moment. “Vex was touched by one of the creatures and it seems to be targeting us, so… I’m not sure.” He turned towards the bed, then took a deep breath as he began to pull the water out of the sheets. It was drawn to a ball in his hand, growing bigger with each second. He thought he could get them completely dry again, but if not then at least it would minimize the mess. “Do you enhance anyone’s abilities? Even mine?”
Lem was used to people thinking she was crazy. Nic had never called her that, so she didn’t think he doubted her interpretation of things, but that probably wouldn’t have surprised her either. He didn’t have the benefit of being hooked up to Vex the vision machine, he hadn’t seen the things that Lem had seen. And of course those things were real, because everything was, in some form or fashion. She didn’t try to explain to Nic that the god was testing them, that its purposes weren’t always sweetness and light, it wasn’t the fake kind of god. It had touched Vex to test him or to use him in some way that just wasn’t clear yet. Nic would see. Instead she watched him fix the wet bed situation with fascination. Watching him do magic never failed to be awesome to her. Lem blinked a little and looked at his face briefly at the questions, then shrugged both petite shoulders. “I dunno honestly,” she said. “I’ve never been around anybody with powers except Vex. Do you feel like, enhanced around me?” Lem smirked a bit and reached over to pinch-squeeze at one of his pecs.
Nic laughed and instinctively squirmed away, then smiled over at her. “I dunno,” he said. “I feel a lot of things around you, so it’s hard to tell.” He didn’t feel especially enhanced, but maybe it was different than the other times he’d felt another’s power merging with his own. Most of his experience was with Zania, where something about the two of them together enhanced each other’s magic. The power of the coven had almost blown him away and he’d just been an observer, a stand in if his sister needed him. Afterwards, he wished he’d had the opportunity himself. He could only imagine how much stronger it had to be if he’d been plugged into the circle. “When I do magic around you, is it like when you’re plugged into one of Vex’s visions?” he asked, holding the orb of water out towards her. “It’d be cool if you could feel it too.”
Smiling faintly, Lem reached out to skate her fingertips very lightly over the surface of the water orb. It was just so fucking cool. Especially with the firelight reflecting in it and everything. So many of Vex’s visions were terrifying and horrible, but Lem had yet to see anything bad come out of Nic’s magic. It was all so beautiful. Even the little living animal skeletons were neat and cute to her. “Not ... really? I don’t think? I mean ... hmm,” she pursed her lips to one side in thought. “I feel like it’s different. When Vex is seeing something, I’m like, seeing it too, so it’s like part of his power is coming through me. But when you do magic, I don’t feel like I’m doing it too. So I dunno, maybe it’s just a visual thing, or like ... you don’t even need a conduit.” She smiled crookedly at him.
“Maybe not,” Nic said, smiling softly as she touched the orb. With all the water siphoned off the sheets, he made the orb smaller and smaller until he closed his hand around it and it disappeared into nothingness, the element absorbed back into the atmosphere. He didn’t like that he’d conjured it on accident, especially in his sleep, but was glad it was just water. Had he been a fire witch… Nic pushed the thought away. “Maybe there’s a difference between magic and… and whatever the dreams are, I guess. ‘Cause you’re definitely seeing those.” He wanted to understand, but everything about the dream situation was weird. “It could be because there’s a psychic element to the dreams, but who knows.”
Lem almost clapped when the water disappeared, like it was some stage magician’s trick, but she just grinned instead. Seeing magic like that would never get old, she felt. Lem shrugged her slim shoulders and moved in closer to Nic, wrapping her arms around him and putting her head on his shoulder. “I’ve never been able to explain it,” she murmured. “I just always knew I wasn’t crazy.” She’d been made to doubt herself for so many years, then Vex had rescued her, and now she knew there was so much more to the world. She knew the truth, and she was what she was and not insane. Lem sighed and squeezed Nic. “I’m sorry all this is happening to you,” she murmured.
There were times that Nic doubted Lem’s perception of things, but he’d never doubted her sanity. She saw things differently than he did and that was part of what made her wonderful. It might be difficult at times, but he wouldn’t have changed her for the world. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy,” Nic muttered, holding her close. “Most people are clueless. You’re one of the few who’s not.” He wouldn’t have wanted her to go through this with him, but it was nice to have someone he could really talk to see what he’d seen. Even with their brain share, Nic didn’t feel like he’d connected with the others the way he should have. They’d somehow missed the big picture and now something was coming and they still hadn’t figured it out. “It’s okay. I just hope we figure this out before it’s too late.”
Lem smiled faintly. Shakespeare. Which wasn’t something most people would expect her to know, but Lem had spent plenty of time in classrooms too. Granted, a lot of them had been classrooms attached to psychiatric units when she’d been in her high school years, but whatever, they still taught Shakespeare to the kids who were able to learn it. Lem liked to read. It made her feel warm inside to hear him say she wasn’t clueless. She just wished that could help her help Nic with all of this. She hugged him tight. “We will,” she said with confidence. It was that fake it ‘til you make it brand of confidence, but you held onto what you could. Lem kissed the side of his neck. “C’mon, let’s go back to bed, now that it’s dry. Can’t figure anything out on no sleep.”
Nic appreciated her positivity, even if he knew she had nothing to back it up. Faith could be powerful in the right circumstances, just like a negative outlook could steer them towards their downfall. Now that the moment had passed, and they were awake safe in his room, Nic’s fear had dissolved, leaving traces of worry that would have to wait till morning. Lem was right; they’d be useless without sleep. He nuzzled her back, kissed her temple and wrapped an arm around her waist. “You have the best ideas,” he murmured softly. Hopefully everything would be clearer when they woke up.