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 Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 8:46 pm
Ren was not exactly pleased that he had stopped sleeping well. He had barely managed to get over the last field trip, had only just been starting to sleep through the night, but now...
Now the nightmares had started again.
He was waking up every few hours, only able to sleep perhaps two at most; and even then it was stuttered, staccato, restless sleep that was filled with blackness and blood.
And fire. Always fire.
Ren awoke early on the first free day he'd had since returning home, gasping for air, his hair sweaty and matted. The dreams had engulfed him flames, and he had had to claw himself out of it, desperate to return to the land of the living.
It was not yet ten; a rather unusual time for him to be up, since Ren normally liked sleeping until noon at the latest, but now he could not. He had told LW he was going to try and sleep through the night on his own, but it had not worked, to say the least.
He showered, but it was quick, and the hot water did nothing to alleviate the dark circles beneath his eyes as he dressed. Tiredly, his head throbbing, Ren slogged through his room as though in a sort of stupor. His mind kept going a thousand miles a minute, from LW to Gabrian to Jove to Xiu to Vaith to everyone and anyone he had seen during the field trip.
...Vaith.
He had not seen the reaper since returning to the school.
Are you okay?
Ten minutes later, Ren was at the reaper dorms, hesitant at first as he stood outside of his friend's room, but then he knocked quietly on the door.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:14 pm
It was not yet ten am.
Typically, the reaper would have been sleeping in too. But he wasn't. Obvious indication that he hadn't was his folded sheets and untouched pillow, still fluffy, without a single trace of a recent head imprint. Vaith had been sitting by his window, staring out into Halloween Town's sky when he got the knock on his door. Who could it be? The sounds of slight shuffling and a yawn could be heard, the reaper's hand place dbehind his neck to rub at stuff muscles as he opened the door.
Surprise made his red eyes widen as he identified his newest and second visitor. The dark circles were evident under both of their eyes .. but that did nothing to curb the reaper's small display of enthusiasm, as he held out his hand for a bro-shake with one of his best boil friends.
"Ren."
The way Vaith said his name had too many emotions. Relief, satisfaction, nostalgia, regret .. Too many bundled up in one. As painful as it was to see the gryphon, it was a meeting that was long overdue. That guaranteed some good catching up, since prom. Which seemed all too long ago.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2011 9:29 pm
Relief flooded Ren's face, as clear as anything else, when Vaith opened the door. He did not look great; there were the same dark circles under his eyes that were under Ren's own, and he seemed exhausted and worn, but there was a smile on his face.
You're alive, was the first thought that Ren had, but since it was a rather stupid, completely obvious fact, he swallowed back the desire to actually voice it.
"Vaith," he said, in a hoarse voice as he took his friend's hand, gripping it tightly. "I'm..."
The words were not coming properly. Ren gave a small, weak smile to the boil and then stepped inside the room. His eyes did not miss the made bed, the undisturbed sheets - clearly he was not the only one having difficulty sleeping.
"I'm sorry to, er...just drop by unannounced," said Ren, absently twisting his hands together, his tail flicking behind him in an almost nervous fashion. "I just wanted..."
To see if you were still breathing, since I can't see anything but flames anymore.
"...to see how you were doing," he finished lamely. "How, er...are you?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 7:02 pm
""You're welcome anytime, dude." Vaith fist-bumped the other, holding out his hand as Ren uncharacteristically apologized. Both of them knew Ren was welcome-- Hell, the gryphon sometimes didn't stop knocking and pounding the door even when he was sleeping. But it seemed that they lacked their usual familiarity. Hell, if familiarity was the only thing temporary lost, they got off lucky. But it wasn't the only thing, was it?
"I'm here."
The statement was simple, like the reaper himself. He held out his arms in a gesture towards his figure, one arm bandaged from the flames and his hand even more heavily so, from the knife wound. But he was there. Unlike the professor that they would never see in their halls again.
"Everyone came back. Because she made it possible. Although I never died in the first place-- I heard from Xiu that you did." Vaith asked, inquiring, eyebrows furrowed in deep concern. He closed the open door as he talked, never taking his eyes off Ren. As if, if they did, they might not see each other again.
And they never knew when they might not.
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Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2011 7:44 pm
Ren knew he was not exactly acting himself; under normal circumstances he would have just knocked obnoxiously until Vaith answered, or would have even just walked inside without bothering to knock in the first place. Vaith was, and always would be, one of his best friends, after all, and Ren had never seen a problem with just waltzing in unannounced.
But now...somehow he felt as though he could not be that person anymore. Even with people like Vaith, who knew what he had been through, who had been through it (most of it) with him.
Ren managed a somewhat weak smile at the other boil's statement, moving to sit on the corner of the bed with one leg drawn up against his chest, his fingers linked together at his ankle. He rested his head against his knee and sighed a little, wings curling against his back.
A dull flush crossed his cheeks. "I, er..." mumbled Ren, turning away from Vaith as though he couldn't quite bear to look at the other. "...yes."
There was a long pause. Ren blew out his breath in one long exhale.
"...I was burned alive."
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:13 pm
Confirmed.
Vaith lifted up the edge of Ren's shirt suddenly, forcing the other to unfold from his self-defensive posture, suddenly revealing Ren's partially naked back and naval. His frown considerably lessened, surprising the other with his new lack of tact.
Being around Mai and Aurian did that to you.
"You don't look burned. Better than I thought." Vaith commented, taking in Ren's bandaged arm and head .. At least that was all that was bandaged. His whole arm and hand were heavily wrapped in white and one could take the tme to note that Vaith used that arm sparingly. "Mumbling isn't really cool for you. I like your cocky know-it-all thing better. Dude, you look lamer than me when you mumble."
Obviously, Ren was not meant to be lamer than Vaith.
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Posted: Fri Nov 11, 2011 8:14 pm
If Ren did not know Vaith as well as he did, he might have jumped ten feet in the air in surprise at the sudden attempt at undressing him.
As it was, he only jumped about five.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Ren squawked, wings flapping violently as his face turned a pale shade of red and he attempted to push the other boil away from him, his bandaged hands shoving against Vaith's chest. "I don't swing that way, man - okay, I mean, I've had a few kisses with guys, but that's beside the point, I have a ghoulfr - oh."
Clearly he was not entirely thinking straight, since after a moment he realized that Vaith was just checking to see if he had scars or burn marks.
Which left Ren feeling quite stupid.
"Er," he said. "My bad."
There was a long pause, after which a long sigh escaped his lips, Ren reaching up a hand to rub at his forehead. "It's because of that whole dissipating thing. You know, when your FEAR restores you again - except it didn't restore all of me."
Obviously, since the hand that Vaith was looking at was wrapped in white gauze. Ren's gaze flicked towards his friend's own arm. He had not seen Vaith rescue Xiu, but he'd been there right after and had heard what had happened.
He gave Vaith a slightly exasperated look. "Thank you for your vote of confidence."
Another sigh escaped. Ren's ears flicked back against his hair.
"I can't...go back to normal. Not yet, at least. It's not working. I've tried."
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Posted: Sun Nov 13, 2011 1:59 pm
"Yep. Your bad." The reaper ghoul was straight as a ruler --- He was possibly even straighter than Ren. So what led the other boil to the conclusion that Vaith had stripped Ren for any purpose otherwise, was unfathomable to the reaper.
"You're welcome." Vaith let go of his hold on the gryphon's shirt, seating himself back on his clean bed, his weight pulling on the black and yellow bedsheets with such starched wrinkles that only a freshly washed and dried bedsheet could produce. Could the gryphon guess that bedsheets were changed consistently, acting as a mechanism to relieve Vaith of sleeping? Whenever he did sleep, all her did was relive moments that he'd rather forget and wake up sweat-ridden from nightmares?
... He probably did.
"It's a little hard. With the whole Amytiville conspiracy thing .. Actually, we're never going back, are we?"
He laid down, in a bit of frustration on his bed, abnormal for the normally composed reaper. His pillow muffled a angry groan. What were they supposed to do to even try to get back a semblance of normal?
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:22 pm
"Let's, er... not mention this to anyone, shall we?" said Ren, a little sheepishly, as he pulled his shirt straight again. absently twiddling the hem of it with his fingers. He smoothed it down in almost a nervous fashion, eyes watching Vaith as the reaper got comfortable on the bed - a bed that was clearly not slept often in. The sheets were very obviously stiff and newly clean; a clearly indication that Vaith was probably sleeping just as well as Ren was - namely not at all.
Shifting, Ren crossed his legs together, turning to look at his friend. He pulled a pillow towards him and hugged it against his stomach, resting his chin atop of it.
"...not really," he said quietly. "I don't see how we ever can be normal again."
Vaith's groan of irritation matched the one in Ren's head, and he leaned back on Vaith's bed, sighing as he stared blankly up at the ceiling.
"You know, I was just starting to get over the last field trip. I was starting to think I had finally gotten over things, that I was starting to convince people that I wasn't insane, that I was still who I ever was."
His fingers found the feathers of one of his wings, and Ren absently tugged on one, yanking it out abruptly and turning it over in his hands.
"Except apparently that won't work. I'm still insane."
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Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2011 9:53 pm
"We're made of fear. We're not likely to be sane." Vaith pointed out, the ironic build-up of their life wasn't based on anything stable. It was only stable in the town of Halloween. Vaith let Ren's words sink in for a moment, letting his arm lie limply to the side.
"You know .. Is there really any good in trying to get over it? What's there to get over-- As of now, isn't it better to just accept things the way they are? The conspiracy, Red's death .. all of it. Hunters. We've never the same as we are yesterday .. It's really a literal quote when you apply it to the fact Red's events took a single night."
In all honesty, there was nothing to get over. It was called sucking it up. Except for the nightmares part. That wasn't so easy to suck up. But he was sure time would dim the effect .. probably. "If you're insane, I'm insane with you. Half the student body is. That makes us sane right, if you go by the definition of majority?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:53 pm
"Not to mention sane is a wildly relative term," mumbled Ren, closing his eyes briefly. He gave a small sigh, dropping the loose feather in his hands onto his chest and linking his fingers behind his head, tilting his head up to stare at the ceiling.
At least until Vaith spoke again, and then Ren turned his head to look at his friend.
"I...don't know," he said quietly, his gaze flickering a little. "I...I tried, you know? Getting over the last field trip, the one where I - "
The word caught in his throat, and Ren, embarrassed, hastily looked away.
"Well. You know what happened that time, even though we were separated. And I've spent weeks - months, even - trying to do just that - 'get over it.' Except when I thought I was all right...this happened."
His wings fluttered a little, then settled quietly beneath him as Ren traced the lines of the ceiling with his eyes. A small, half smile quirked his lips upwards.
"Maybe being insane is really being sane. Or is that just confusing things more?"
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