[ OPEN ] pre-event (until...)

[nightwash]

WHO: Ronan Lynch & OPEN
WHAT: Before (& eventually after) Event #1
WHERE: Room 2 & The Library
WHEN: June 12 - 14 (& eventually June 19)
NOTES: Prompts in the comments! Action or prose is fine.

Comments

[nightwash]

Okay, no. He didn't ask. He just assumed, like the idiot he is, that Kylo would do what he'd said he'd do. When will he learn to stop relying on people? He knew from the start that he shouldn't stay in this room, that he shouldn't close his eyes when there was a risk anyone else might be around. It was sheer dumb luck that he didn't kill either of his roommates.

None of this is Kylo's fault. It's Ronan's. It always is.

"Sure you would have," he says, not particularly enthused about being the weight dragging Kylo down wherever he goes. "But I think I'd better go back to Plan A. There's got to be somewhere those wizards can put me that isn't a room full of innocent bystanders."

[photophobic]

"I'm sure there is. If you want to inform them you're an ongoing threat."

Kylo turns to face Ronan, abandoning the task for now. He can feel the thick, sluggish blanket of shame Ronan wants to drape around his shoulders as clearly as if it were his own.

"No. We will handle it. Together. Here. It isn't the dungeon that keeps the prisoners separated from their power, Ronan."

Which is part of why Kylo had volunteered as a supervisor— to gain insight into the method Thorne was employing to keep its prisoners powerless. If Ronan makes too much of an issue of the difficulties he's facing...

Well. Kylo can't see many reasons for them to allow Ronan continued access to his magic, if it's so easy for them to cut any individual off no matter where they are. And that's unacceptable. Completely unacceptable.

[nightwash]

We?

Ronan stares at Kylo, refusing to walk blindly into that offer. Not this time. He's not going to put himself in someone else's hands just so they can drop him again.

"So what?" he asks. "Why do you care if they put me in the dungeon? If they lock me in a tower? Whatever magic they do to make me useless. All it means is that you don't wake up to more of this shit."

It means certain death for Ronan, but he can't see what loss that would be for Kylo. He turned his back on Ronan so easily before.

[photophobic]

Kylo doesn't respond. Not to that. Instead, he watches Ronan's face for a long, curious moment, eyes deadly steady on his face.

"You're angry with me," he murmurs.

[nightwash]

Ronan lets go of the sword he's been leaning on, squaring his shoulders as he faces Kylo.

"Maybe I am."

And he doesn't have a right. He's aware. But Ronan has never required anyone's permission to be angry. He's always there for them and they're always leaving him. All of them. It isn't fair.

"I needed you and you left me."

[photophobic]

Kylo doesn't flinch from Ronan's anger or respond with a heated barrage of his own, though it's clear something is happening behind the dark of his eyes as he swallows up the weight of that accusation.

I needed you, and you left me.

As if anyone has ever needed him to do anything but leave.

"They'll muzzle you, if you ask them to," he says eventually. "But that's not what you want. Is it."

[nightwash]

No. No, it's not. That's what happened to him in the world he left behind, when Hennessy took everything from him. In a way, it's been his entire life: hidden away on a farm, tucked into the mountains, buried. He's so tired of being smothered.

He wants to burn.

Silence is never a wrong answer. He holds Kylo's gaze for another moment before looking away. He dreamt a thousand swords while searching for help, and now Kylo's here, and Ronan doesn't know what to ask him to do except stay.

[photophobic]

Ronan doesn't need to say it— and not simply because of Kylo's newly returned ability to read minds. He recognises the roiling mix of anger, hurt and frustration all too easily.

The hunger, too. That perhaps most of all.

"Does it have to be here. For the dream to work. For you to undo this."

[nightwash]

"It depends..."

It's not as simple as dreaming a whole new room. He can't just replace what's here already. If he tried, he might end up with an even bigger mess. Who knows? Maybe the whole tower would collapse under the weight of an additional room manifested over the existing one. Rewriting reality is complicated work.

No, he can't just throw new shit on top of old shit. He needs to think more specifically. Some kind of undo button? Ctrl+Z for the material world? God, but if he fucks that up, he could wipe out the entire castle. Ronan sighs, pressing his fist to his forehead. Think...

"Actually, it'd be better if it isn't. In case I get it wrong."

[photophobic]

Kylo casts an eye over the skewered devastation of their dormitory, considering the predicament. It isn't simply a matter of wanting to avoid time-consuming labour— a number of these swords have their hilts embedded in the floor, and short of leaning into the aesthetic and hammering them flat there isn't much to be done.

Unless Ronan can rectify the situation with the same power that had them summoned into being in the first place. His lips quirk.

"Perhaps we can buy you peace and quiet for a few hours with some of these," he suggests, yanking one last sword free and testing the balance of its weighting appreciatively. "If a little distance would be useful. There should be lodgings available for the right price, now we have the freedom of the city."

[nightwash]

Because the swords had been nothing but a problem for Ronan all day, he hadn't considered the possibility of their value. Even damaged, they're real steel. Someone's bound to have a use for them, for the metal alone. How much is one of them worth? A night at an inn? A week? A month?

"I've got no fucking idea how money works in this place," he confesses. "But I guess we could try."