And the Boats Drift On [Open to All]

[applesaucemod]

The water is calm, and the night sky is filled with stars. The only light is natural: a patchy, bioluminescent glow coming from the water below, and the bright swath of the Milky Way above. It's not much, but it's more than enough to see by.

The dreamers will find themselves sitting in their own little rowboats, each stocked with two oars, a length of rope, some cushions, and a little picnic basket full of snacks. There is no visible shoreline, but it won't take the dreamers long to realize theirs are not the only boats in this shallow sea. Anything stirring in the water, be it fish or paddle, causes phosphorescent plankton to glow a bright blue, so there isn't really anywhere to hide.

Feel free to paddle around and visit the other dreamers, perhaps tying your boats together and sharing your snacks in an impromptu picnic. Or you could go for a swim - the bioluminescence makes it difficult to see the bottom, but it's not too terribly deep, so the risk of drowning is all but nonexistent. This setting, unlike the last one, isn't actively out to kill you. Or you could simply lie back and look at the stars.



[ooc: Same drill as always, folks. All are welcome, regardless of whether or not your character is in the game. Characters may remember or forget dream shenanigans at the player's discretion.]

Comments

[johnny_truant]

Johnny's quick to panic at the assault, snapping out of his trance and jerking backward in his boat, narrowly missing the oar as it wings alarmingly past his head. The boat rocks violently with the movement, and as he struggles to right himself, and to swing his oar back at Zagreus, he instead upsets the balance further, heaving too far to one side. The boat topples, and he slips, flailing, into the water.

[antitimelord]

This is why boats are a bad idea all around, even if they do come with convenient blunt weaponry already primed for murder. Going overboard is too easy an escape for Zagreus' tastes, and he makes the ill-considered decision to try and haul Johnny out of the water, leaning precariously to snatch at his collar. It's not like Johnny could just slip under the surface and swim away, even if he were inclined; the horrible glowing whatevers have seen to that, activated with Johnny's helpless flails, making him an easy target. Zagreus is determined that he should pay for marking him, even so trivially. This is such a terrible idea.

[johnny_truant]

There's barely any time for Johnny to get his bearings, much less try to make an escape; the hands grasping at him make him panic all the more, and he struggles back wildly. Zagreus is trying to drag him up and out, to do god knows what to him, no, fuck that. Johnny has no recourse, no good options here, so instead he lashes out with violence and aggression. Nothing's going to happen without a fight. He breaks the surface, gasping for air, and reaches up to grab whatever he can. One hand wraps around Zagreus' arm, the other seizes him by the cravat, then he thrusts his weight back down, dragging Zagreus into the water on top of him. Drawing on instincts he didn't know he had, he curls inward and kicks Zagreus as hard as he can in the gut, attempting to propel himself backward with the same motion.

[antitimelord]

Very rarely does someone choose the fire over the frying pan, but if Johnny and gravity are insisting, who is Zagreus to argue. The rabbit-kick to the stomach does come as a surprise, and he will miss that oxygen, probably, given enough time, but he perseveres nonetheless.

Zagreus proves surprisingly capable in the water--the ocean is only perturbing from the other side, from beneath it's not unhomey--and he catches Johnny's leg before he make a full escape, interfering with the boy's desperate attempts at swimming. Johnny's obviously terrified, and Zagreus stings him with further fear, eel-like and predatory.

HEADS UP this is gonna start getting triggery for anyone with drowning/suffocation squicks

[johnny_truant]

"No-!" Johnny tries to cry out in a frightened kneejerk, but only succeeds in letting all his air go in a cloud of brightly illuminated bubbles. He can't wrench his leg from Zagreus' hold, but he can use him as a pinion point, hoist himself up enough to break the surface again, sucking in a desperate lungful of air. He can't stay afloat though, can't do much of anything. He pulls himself closer and tries to clock Zagreus in the face but punching underwater is measurably more difficult than kicking off of something, as it turns out, and water hinders him too much to land a decent hit.

Frantic and running fully on adrenaline, he manages to surface again and makes a wild grasp for the edge of Zagreus' boat.

[antitimelord]

Johnny is disadvantaged by still thinking vertically, not to mention the whole needing to breathe regularly thing. Zagreus, by dint of physiology and better control of dreams and fear, isn't even really trying to stay afloat in the first place. Johnny's blows are strengthless, easily ignored, and Zagreus claws at Johnny's shirt, tangling their legs, keeping Johnny from treading water or kicking off. He fights like something that belongs in dark water, weighing Johnny down, a constant insinuation, slinging an arm around his neck when he reaches for the boat. Johnny wanted him in the water, so in the water they both stay.

[johnny_truant]

Johnny manages a last gulp of air before Zagreus drags him back down, and he holds it tight as they sink together. Zagreus evidently doesn't need air like he does, and he feels another surge of fear at the realization, that Zagreus will keep him down until this is done. This won't be the first time he's died in one of these fucking dreams, not by a long shot, but it never hurts any less and his desperation to survive never leaves him. He writhes helplessly against Zagreus' hold, his lungs burning, reaching pleadingly back toward the surface, while all around them the pleasant glow of luminescent plankton swirls in their wake.

DEAD DOVE: DO NOT EAT (srsly there will be drowning and death)

[antitimelord]

He considers letting Johnny go, letting this be retaliation enough for the mark. He also considers letting him go only so he can catch him again, what a surge of hope and then despair that would be for Johnny, swimming for the light of the stars only to be pulled back down. But he opts against it in the end, generously, not the least of which because the water isn't all that deep--they're nearing the bottom even now, despite Johnny's struggles surfaceward. It's possible that he can make death a permanent state of affairs in a dream, a gift to take back to the waking world. Zagreus doubts it, of course, but perhaps this is as good a time as any to find out. Zagreus doesn't loosen his various grips no matter how Johnny writhes, until he's sure it won't be any use, that Johnny doesn't have strength or oxygen left to struggle away even if he does break free. He wants just enough distance to be able to pay attention, holding Johnny securely but at arm's length, mouth a firm unbreathing line and eyes avidly bright. What a rare treat, to murder someone and have them survive to remember it unfondly.

(DEATH INTENSIFIES I'm serious this is pretty bleak, I'm so so sorry)

[johnny_truant]

Johnny gives up, not all at once, and not because he wants to. He gives up the way bodies give up. He doesn't want to know what drowning feels like, but that doesn't mean he's not going to learn.

He twists and grapples as the final tremors move through his body, and he looks Zagreus in the eye, his stare overpowering, cutting deep into him. He needs to breathe but there's no air, only water. Oh no, no, please.

His grip loosens and his visions fades out, and there's some minutes of lonely darkness before he wakes, violently, throat too dry to scream, in his bed.