Tʜᴇ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ʙʀᴇᴀᴛʜᴇs sᴀʟᴛʏ ᴡᴏɴ'ᴛ ʏᴏᴜ ᴄᴀʀʀʏ ɪᴛ ɪɴ? (open)

[stations]

WHO: Jack Townsend & You
WHEN: October
WHERE: The Horizon, Thorne
WHAT: Jack sleepwalks and manifests his hallucinations into reality, accidentally steals people's memories, and/or works at a gas station.
WARNINGS: Mental illness, language, drug use, amputations, general insanity.

𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒, 𝑤ℎ𝑦 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑡ℎ?

Comments

[londonbound]

[ Rhy has nearly reached him when the sound begins; it gets louder as he approaches, and he thinks for a moment that Jack might be carrying a cup or bottle of something that he hasn't noticed, or perhaps he's dropped it somewhere nearby, since there's no other apparent explanation. But it becomes quickly obvious that Rhy's attempt to find logic in what's happening has come up against a stubbornly confusing realization: the water is filling up the hallway much faster and with more volume than could be possible if it had been until now contained.

Is Jack accidentally casting a spell? By now, Rhy's realized he's asleep, familiar enough with the concept of sleepwalking even if he's not used to actually encountering it.

He has no idea what to do in this situation, if startling Jack will be dangerous. But the water is not exactly... great. ]

Jack? [ Rhy calls, cajoling at first, softly as though he's trying not to wake him even though he is trying to catch his attention. ]

[stations]

( The gentle sound of his name isn't going to cut it, it seems. Jack doesn't respond, doesn't move — though his eyes flicker quickly beneath his eyelids as subconscious recognition filters through him.

The water doesn't stop — but it doesn't get dangerous either, exactly. It's not a raging rapid, not a rushing river, but it might qualify as a particularly overweight creek. A bloated stream after Thanksgiving? It definitely falls somewhere in between the two points on that spectrum.

A few more short seconds pass, and then a new challenger approaches.

Floating lazily down the stream is a feathery white figure. A duck? A swan? Obviously some kind of water fowl, paddling its little webbed feet and dipping its bill beneath the water, lazily shivering the droplets off again.

Until it sees Rhy, at which point it freezes stock-still.

A long moment passes. The bird makes direct fucking eye contact.

And then it honks, aggressively lurching forward. Not a duck. Not a swan. It's a pissed off mother-flipping goose, and it has spotted prey. As we can see, Jack Townsend has truly horrifying nightmares. )

[londonbound]

[ It seems there's no escaping getting the hem of his trousers wet. Rhy tries to step away from the flow of the water, but it rises all around them, and he still needs to get to Jack.

That's when the water fowl decides to rush him, with a loud and aggressive honk, beak opening wide to show its horrible little teeth.

Rhy has never been in such close proximity to a goose.

He yelps, splashing toward Jack in a most undignified manner, shooing the creature with general arm movements as though that's supposed to banish it. ]

Whoa! Stop that!

[ Whatever Jack is doing, he's summoning weird things in his sleep, and he needs to be woken up. Rhy is less gentle about it this time, grabbing his shoulder when he reaches him. ]

[stations]

( It's clear Rhy is unfamiliar with the threat level he's dealing with here. One does not simply banish a goose. It takes all that arm flapping as a challenge and honks again, flapping angrily right back.

If Rhy thinks waking Jack up is going to save him, well... good news and bad news on that front.

The water does begin to ebb, to slow, to fade as Jack's eyes snap open wide and startled. His head whips around to take in the scene — where he is, where Rhy is, the fact that he's in the middle of a hallway, and- )

Ah! Goose!

( He cries, flailing and backpedaling in an attempt to put Rhy between himself and the gander. Obviously, the goose still very much exists, and it thirsts for the blood of its enemies. Or, like, bread or something. )

[londonbound]

[ The goose was unexpected, sure -- but what is also unexpected is its owner(?) waking up and then trying to hide behind him. Rhy grabs him on instinct when Jack's sudden dive behind him throws them both off balance, and they're lucky not to fall on top of each other into the water.

The goose lurches forward, making an awful amount of noise, beak snapping threateningly. ]

Get rid of it! [ Since the goose itself isn't listening, this is aimed at Jack. ]

[stations]

( This really shouldn't be so high up on his list of most alarming ways he's snapped out of a disassociative state, considering the sheer quantity of unbelievable things he's seen and experienced. And yet... Anybody who judges him has never looked directly into the gaping maw of a goose and seen those horrible little teeth. It's like looking in Pennywise's deadlights or something. )

How?!

( He demands, absently gripping at Rhy's arm for stability as the guy nearly knocks him over. Shoes squeak on the floor as they Scooby Doo themselves into a serviceable sprint. The goose is not to be deterred, and holy shit those things shouldn't be able to waddle this fast. )

What do you want me to do? Find a bigger fucking goose? I'm not really a bird guy!

( Which is to say, Jack is normally a brave individual. It's just that there's a line between bravery and foolishness, and he'd like to think he knows exactly where that line ends.

Geese. )

[londonbound]

Dispel it!

[ Rhy shouts at him like it's the most obvious thing in the world. He keeps looking over his shoulder. The bird is gaining on them. ]

Didn't you summon it in the first place? Just-- undo it!

[stations]

What?! No, I- Wait- really?

( That makes him falter, makes his running slow to a jog while the cogs grind in his mind. God, this is exactly why he started looking for a tutor, Lucifer was right. Manifesting stuff on accident hasn't been a huge deal, but that's a tiny little dinosaur. What if next time it's not a goose, what if it's like a face-eating leopard?

Fuck.

Okay, he did this, he needs to fix it.

He stops. Turns. Watches the bird charging forward at him, and- shit, shit, shit, shit, how does he do it? How does he turn it off?

He has absolutely no idea why it flies out of his mouth, but the first thing he can think to say is: )

The power of Christ compels you!

( Which doesn't actually banish the goose, but does make it stop in its tracks and stare at him with its head cocked judgmentally.

Not gonna lie, this is a new low. Getting judged and found wanting by a fucking goose that he summoned. )

Oh, fuck off.

( Apparently those are the magic words, because the goose fucks off of this entire plane of existence. )

[londonbound]

[ When Jack abruptly stops and turns, Rhy skids to a halt as well, having to step back in the same direction because he'd nearly left Jack behind. He watches, wary, trying to decide if he knows anything that would work against a goose. Mostly, he knows fire magic-- but he doesn't actually want to cook it. Maybe catch it. Or make it go to sleep or something. He does know a spell meant to calm people and make it easier to sleep, but--

Oh.

Jack's shouting profanities at the goose does the trick. Apparently. ]

I... can't believe that worked.