i know you, i walked with you once upon a dream [closed]

[girlinthebox]

WHO: River, Aleron, Simon, Melys, Sina, and Bruce.
WHAT: The Dreamer's going for a walk.
WHEN: Guardian 29
WHERE: The Faaaaaaaaaade
NOTES: CW: Abuse, violence, trauma, etc. Individual starters within.

The Fade is not separate, but intertwined. One half of a woven tapestry, unseen but present and binding. The mages could feel it when they pulled magic through, or walked that plane in sleep. Dreamers? Felt those ties in their bones, the way they tied and plucked at the mundane world of the waking. Their emotions stirred spirits, their memories left imprints that echoed.

Their dreams shaped the abstract around them, without them even knowing. River knew. River had found those paths and wandered them, slipping in and out of one dream and then another, avoiding demons and watching the landscape shift around those who slept in Skyhold.

Here, the bindings were firmer, more secure, but she could see more clearly. Tonight, she made her walk down those paths, following the echoes of sound and emotion like loose strings in different colors. Gather them up and see the picture on the other side.

Carefully, carefully. Here, her touch could alter far too much.

Comments

[girlinthebox]

River hesitates to touch her, but sinks down onto the wet sand, the water lapping up around her knees. Instead of touching her outright, she reaches to place her hands over the glowing mark on her chest. She can feel it pulsing, the way it's trying to change her, breaking down skin and muscle and blood, making her more.

But she isn't ready for that. She wants to be her, a Dalish elf, a First. She wouldn't understand being anything else.

Maybe she can ease the pain. River closes her eyes, and as she does, the water begins to rise around them. The tide is coming in, sweeping higher and higher with each new wave.

[eolasemah]

Sina is in too much pain to speak, but watches her between the waves. She still looks sad and resigned, but her brow creases in a small smile of relief at River's touch on the shard. After meeting her gaze for a moment, she is submerged. And then she is gone.

She wakes up coughing and confused, looking around to a dark tent lit only by the green glittering of the shard.