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[dissonates]

[There isn't a lot that makes Asch wake so suddenly in the middle of the night, feeling sweaty and shaken. He's been having some difficulty sleeping the last couple of nights, but this is the first time it's actually woken him up. It's disturbed him enough to kill his desire to sleep, so rather than bother trying, he rolls over beneath the covers and stares at the wall for a while, mulling over the dream. Just what does it all mean? He knows he's not the only one going through all this.

What bothers him most though... is why did it feel like some of the dreams he'd had weren't even his?]

Comments

[fabrecation]

[Right about the same time Asch wakes up, Luke did too, letting in a sharp gasp and pushing himself up in bed. He stares for a moment, breathing hard and sweating, before he realizes that it's just a dream. Just a dream... A horrible dream. He isn't surprised, considering the journals have been flaring with people having strange dreams and nightmares... but he wasn't quite expecting that one.

He know he's not the only one going through all this. So, after he wipes his face, runs his hand through his bangs and lets out a long sigh, he grabs one of his smaller journals, one that he uses to write down his dreams (which, for some reason, was missing when that weird Shift happened earlier in the week), and heads to his twin's room.

Luke's quiet as he walks; he tiptoes past his mother's room and carefully eases open Asch's door. No need to get her involved in all of this yet, not before he talks to Asch.]

Asch? [He calls out in a stage whisper.]

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[He's not surprised to hear the voice call him shortly after, considering the intensity of the dreams. They've always had a strong connection, after all- they could always find each other, and finishing each others' sentences wasn't a stretch either. Thoughts and feelings were all-too often communal.

With a slightly disturbed frown, he rolls back to face the door, squinting over at the door.]

I'm awake, Luke.

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Oh, good...

[That response was mostly to just... give a reply of some kind. He shuts the door quietly behind him, then blinks and gives his eyes time to adjust to the darkness of the room. Thankfully, the moon from the window provides some light. Once the outline of the bed and Asch can be seen, Luke tiptoes until he sits on the edge of it, his hands entwined between his knees as he stares down at the dark floor. He's very tempted to follow old childhood habits and scoot back to curl up near his brother, but... well... he's too old for that. Still, it's an urge that he finds hard to fight back.]

You had a nightmare too, right?

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[Asch is quiet for a long moment, resting his head back against the pillow and gazing at the ceiling. He could deny it, perhaps, but there's little point of doing that when Luke already knows. Looks like he was having dreams of the same sort.]

...Yeah.

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[They usually do talk about dreams together, trying to pick out which parts were the same and which weren't, even the bad ones. But this one... Luke's reluctant to talk about it. Even remembering it makes his hands shake.

But after a moment of silence, he shuts his eyes and lets in a deep breath.]

I was on this huge ship. Really huge, I'm pretty sure everyone in Luceti could fit inside it. I was with... Ion's sister, and this man I've seen around here. I had long hair for some reason... There were these monsters attacking the ship. They went into this... place inside the ship to gain control of it again, and they left me outside. And... And I was attacked by this...

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...Armored knight. [Asch finishes it as if it had been his own sentence; it had, in fact, been part of his own dream.] He wore a white robe, and a helmet that concealed his face. He was trying to kill you.

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[He nods, even though Asch can't see it. Having Asch finish his sentence or have the same dream as him is no longer surprising.]

The next thing I knew, the sword was in my hand and - and I... I was just trying to get him away, I didn't... I f-felt something when I did that, and when I looked up, he...

He fell down. There was so much blood, on my hand and the sword and on the floor and I didn't - [Luke cuts himself off, his hands squeezed together while his head remains low. He'd killed that man. It felt as vivid as if it actually happened yesterday, even though it... couldn't have happened. And Asch knows that blood and anything that has to do with death makes Luke feel queasy. Seeing all of that, even in a dream...]

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...It's just a dream. [He mumbles it, hands clenching in the sheets, eyes narrowing as he continues to focus on the ceiling above him.] It's just a dream, and that means none of it is real.

[Acknowledging it as real would just... it wouldn't be right. It would mean that his dream is...]

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... Right. It's not real.

[It can't be real. It just can't. But... It still felt different from his other dreams. Still, he knows from his mother that dreams can sometimes feel real. Maybe... It was just like that.

Luke purses his lips, then gives in to that urge he was fighting back, just a little. He shifts and lifts the covers enough to slide under them, though he still stays on his side, not touching or looking at Asch. The last thing he wants is to be called a child for acting like this.]

What about you?

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[Asch glances sidelong at Luke, glowering as he watches his brother slide under the covers with him. He's irritated, but at the same time, the company is a small comfort after the strange series of dreams they've experienced this week. Instead he does his best to ignore their closeness, thinking back to the memory of those images in his mind. He has an easier time of dealing with it than Luke, at least- blood has never made him squeamish or distressed. It's just... the intensity of it. He hadn't expected that kind of...

...ugh.]

I was outside at night, in a uniform- like the one your guard was wearing, but black and red. There were others with me. We entered a building still in the dark... it looked like some kind of church, or a dorm of one, anyway. There was incense burning somewhere. I was a lot younger, but...

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... You were giving them orders. Like they were your soldiers.

[Just like Asch, Luke finishes the sentence as if it was his own. After all, that was a part of his dream, too.]

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...Yeah. And the mission was to kill everyone inside.

[Which he did. They all did. Quite efficiently, in fact- even though after it was over he felt disgusting, dirty, like he'd never be clean again, and the blood was soaked through his clothes and in his hair and...

They weren't even armed.]

"Mission accomplished, sir," they said. They called me Asch the Bloody.

[Like it was his name.]

[fabrecation]

[It was such a vivid dream, too... All that blood, so much more that was spilled in his own dream. Luke's hands hands grip into the sheets and covers, his body tensing over the memory of it. The dream technically didn't even belong to him, but...]

It wasn't real. It can't be real. You're not like... that.

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That's why I said it was just a dream.

[And maybe if he keeps telling himself that over and over it'll feel more like the truth.

But it is the truth- it must be, he knows that. He has memories of his childhood, of growing up here with Luke and their mother. He remembers that age. He didn't kill anyone, and definitely not like that. And sure, maybe the uniform resembled some of his clothes, but... still.]

[fabrecation]

[He was in his favorite clothes in that dream, ones that are in his closet right now. Usually he never dreams of them in that kind of detail - the demon face on the back would be missing, his belt would be gone... But not this time.

They were both murderers in those dreams.

Still, it was fake. It was. He had long hair in that dream - he never owned that outfit back then, he wasn't even that age when his hair was that style. That accident with the scissors happened when he was thirteen or so, not seventeen.

Dwelling more on them would just make them spout more denials and maybe even make Luke sick again, though. So, he turns to his other side, facing Asch now, and forces up a little smile.]

I took a nap earlier. I dreamed of this thing that looked like Star, but a different color and a lot more annoying. [Now that smile's looking a little more genuine, and he lowers his voice as if he's sharing some kind of secret.] I kicked it like a ball, and it went flying. But it still came running back to me. [He pauses, the smile falling away in favor of confusion.] ... It talked somehow. It called me Master.

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[Asch scoffs faintly at that, giving his twin a little shove.] If you go around kicking animals, it's no wonder Star prefers to stay with me. He's not as stupid as that dream of yours.

[How strange, to dream about an animal like Star, but not Star himself- they've never seen another one like him, after all.

Well... since we're on the subject of better dreams...]

Yesterday I had a dream about a blonde-haired princess. She jumped right out of her castle window and landed on me.

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[That makes Luke give a lop-sided grin and prop his head up on his arm to get a better look at him.]

A princess? Really? She just - jumped out of the window, just like that? And landed on you?

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Don't ask me why. Maybe she was running away from home. We must've gotten away, anyway- the next thing I knew we were standing by a cliffside watching the sunset.

[H... holding hands. For some reason.]

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... Who were you supposed to be? Her knight?

[Poooke in the ribs. |D]

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[Asch glares at him and slaps away the offending hand.] Knights aren't unarmed and ten years old, idiot. Anyway, what the hell does it matter? She's not even real.

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Relax, I'm just messing with you! [Rrrgh, stupid twin, taking things way too seriously. B| But he settles back down on his pillow after that and, as if he's trying to be discrete about it, he takes a little scoot closer to Asch.]

Yesterday I dreamed about a man with a beard and weird eyebrows. He was training me, and he kept giving me advice. And... [Guy was there, watching us spar.]

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[Asch doesn't finish the sentence for him, though he knows what it ends with. He's been trying (with difficulty) to avoid talking or thinking about Guy- for him, it's the easiest way to cope with his disappearance. Instead he focuses on the rest.]

...I don't remember anyone like that.

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Neither do I.

[It's the easiest way for him to cope with Guy's disappearance, too - to never mention him or think about him, or if he does, to try and think about the good things. Still... it's hard. Luke ducks his head and scoots closer still, enough so that his fingers bump against Asch's upper arm.]

He felt familiar, though... At first I thought he was our dad, but... He didn't look a thing like us. [...] I don't think mom would like him, anyway.

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[Asch's eyes flicker downwards, to where Luke's fingers rest, but this time he opts to say nothing. Maybe this is something they both can appreciate, at least for a little while.]

...We should probably write these dreams down. If they're that troublesome, Mother can help us with them later.

[Though he's not particularly inclined to discuss that bloody mess they talked about earlier.]

[fabrecation]

Yeah... [His journal rests behind him, but he makes no move to retrieve it. Maybe he'll do it later... When he feels like moving.]