Heart Game: dreamwalker variety

[castaside]

WHO: Macaque and dreamwalker participants
WHAT: Soul explorations
WHEN: any point during Feb 20-24
WHERE: dream world that looks remarkably like Macaque's soul
WARNINGS: will be marked

Comments

Re: Level S - West Door

[castaside]

The jar contains a reddish-yellow sand, as if it's from a dead desert. Even before the memory hits, you feel its lifelessness.

You are Macaque, and you are clinging to hope.

You are at Camel Ridge, with what remains of your brothers. They insist that Wukong has betrayed you, that he is now an Agent of Heaven, and thus your enemy.

You won't believe it. Even though you fell out so many years ago, you won't believe the worst of Wukong. You can't. You lean against the wall as your stomach churns and you listen with growing frustration at how little faith your brothers have in Wukong.

You try to explain that there might be another explanation. There has to be.

Your brothers don't believe it. Peng asks if there's anything Wukong could to do break his hold over you.

Teeth gritted, you say nothing. Because that is your answer, apparently.

Re: Level S - West Door

[noodleboi]

Candid feels the memory. Feeling Macaque's emotions and thoughts as this all plays out. Azure Lion there on that throne. Peng and Yellow Tusk so sure of Monkey King's betrayal. It's hard. It had to be hard for Macaque. Candid pulls his hand back as the memory ends.

"...Are we ever gonna find out how it all went down?" He asks, mostly to himself. More memories to go. He touches the woven shadows on top of the paper next.

Re: Level S - West Door

[castaside]

A hush of cool breeze swirls through the area refreshingly. That, apparently, is your answer.

Candid picks up the paper, and there is no memory attached. It says "Don't Forget" on it over and over, the ink an impossible sort of dark that can only be shadows. You feel a sinking desperation that goes along with the note. Clinging to whatever it is that Macaque wanted to remember, although you don't have a memory that goes with it so you'll have to guess based on vibes...

But as soon as the desperation comes, it is eased. Not fully, but enough. Your heart swells even as a newer, softer fear blossoms. You can almost hear Macaque chuckling in your ear: ain't love a bitch?

Re: Level S - West Door

[noodleboi]

The breeze is an answer that Candid can't decipher. He doesn't have time to really focus on that as the next part comes in. No memory but 'Don't Forget' just repeats over and over, ink into darkness. Then desperation, something that he can't let himself forget. Whatever it is, he has to find out on his own. It calms down and he can hear those words and shivers a little.

"Yeah. Yeah it really is. In all the ways," Candid says back. Love really is a bitch. His fingers go for the candle next.

Re: Level S - West Door

[castaside]

You are Macaque, and you are irritated.

MK just accused you of something -- what, you can't even say -- and took off despite that he was turning to stone at the time. How did it even start? He demanded to know whether you were really over Wukong, which-- caught you off guard. Technically yes, but only because Donnie snipped some connections in your brain...

And here you'd just apologized for being distant before. But whatever is going on with MK, it was it difficult not to give into the irritation that you're feeling. The void where feelings should be is probably not helping, but there was a momentum to the conversation and it seemed to be dragging you along like a riptide.

Maybe it was that you were irritated that he hadn't told anyone that he was turning to stone. That you asked him to trust people to care about him. Irony of ironies.

Still, still, you're not going to let him turn to stone. You may be on each other's last nerve -- or, more accurately, bumping up against the void in your feelings, but you still care about him. You're not going to let him turn to stone.

So you grab the antidote through a portal, and open a second one onto MK's nimbus. Thrusting the potion through it in a tight fist.

"Take it," you insist. He does, and then he tells you to leave him alone, more or less.

So you do. And then you scrub at your face, wondering what the hell just happened.

Re: Level S - West Door

[noodleboi]

There are so many emotions swirling inside Candid as he relives that scene from Macaque's perspective. He remembers that same scene from K's perspective. The original was running on fear. Fear of being abandoned, fear that whatever it was between himself and Macaque was only because Mk was like Wukong. Fear that if Macaque was over Wukong and felt nothing for him, then was that why Macaque felt so distant suddenly?

If it was all actually about Wukong, then maybe he just didn't matter now either.

Candid sighs and takes a moment to think and process. He mouths the word Processing to himself but doesn't say it out loud. Just to help calm himself down. To sort. Macaque's feelings were valid. The irritation, the confusion, and that void bumping and the terrible exchange.

MK was scared and Candid has to remind himself at the time, even though it was never true, the fear was his usual trauma response. Fear of not being needed, of being abandoned, and of not being good enough. MK is working on it now and they are both working on the issues that caused this in the first place.

"Thank you Sunset," He murmurs and cracks his neck.

"Okay. Next one," Candid touches the blueprint.

Re: Level S - West Door

[castaside]

The set of blueprints is clearly this in-progress cathedral.

There are plans for more walls, and a section that is detailing a mirror glass window for Cole, but it's surrounded by question marks.

You feel a sense of contentment when you touch the plans. You feel complete. And yet you are afraid that you might lose all that you have gained. You are afraid that you're not ready to be what they all need. And yet you are striving to try and be that. All you want is their happiness, and to be a part of that happiness, and that would be enough.

Re: Level S - West Door

[noodleboi]

Candid lets the feelings wash over him and closes his eyes. He smiles to himself. This place is going to build into something much more complete. He gently feels over the blueprints, comparing them to the area around him.

"It's coming along nicely. And you are such a dad now."

He touches the goggles next.