Mr. Sandman

[outstandingbalance]

6 Feb.

It's February, still cold but Valentine's Day just around the corner and people starting to think of spring, it might not be surprising that romance seems to be in the air. Hard to pin down just what the difference is—but romance seems to be nagging at a lot of minds.

It might be because last night, you had a dream. Nothing clear, but bits and pieces stick with you. Maybe it was just stolen glances and light kisses, or maybe it was flashes and surprising jolts of something more physical, more raw. Either way, the dream doesn't quite fade away when daylight comes.

The strangest part? It's about someone you normally try not to think of that way.

Dreams are like that though, sometimes. It's probably nothing.

10 Feb.

A few days later, and the dreams keep on keeping on. For at least one person, it's every night. For others, it may be more intermittent. It may be just happening for the first time, after a visit to the Redbright Institute or passing through the surrounding neighbor, or after chatting with a particular vampire. It might happen spontaneously. Either way the dreams keep coming, and they continue to be about someone in particular, someone who you've been denying or ignoring your attraction to, but it's getting hard to pretend you don't feel a little warmer when you think about them.

It's starting to seem like there's something a little weird going on here. Even weirder? There's a chance that the person you're dreaming about is having the same dreams. Not just romantic dreams—the exact same shared dreams.

At least, they are if they're dreaming of you too.

14 Feb.

It's been a week now, and the dreams keep escalating. Not only do they become more frequent, they're more vivid. What started with disjointed images and feelings, more impressions than anything else, have evolved into full narratives—ranging from chastely romantic nonsense, imagining that the object of your desire is a knight coming to rescue you from a dragon, or arrived to offer comfort and support in a bleak moment, to intensely erotic. Some of them may be down right silly.

But the common thread is there. They are all about the same person, and they all expose the fact that you care about them in a way that's not as platonic as you've pretended.

And maybe it's about time you confronted that?

On the other hand, maybe you're just riding this out.

Either way, this is getting sorted out tonight. There's not going to be a better time for it

Comments

[freelife]

Evie can feel herself trying to fit against Natasha, pressing a bit more of her weight against her. Natasha's energy seems to shift, and with it, Evie does as well, deepening the kiss between the two women.

[outstandingbalance]

The kiss deepens, becoming more pointed—more heated and directed toward a particular outcome, an urgency slipping into the contact. Natasha can't deny the appeal of seeing this through, the way it excites her. She doesn't want to deny it—

Natasha wakes with a start, sitting upright in bed in her dark room an panting softly. For a short moment, her thoughts are clouded with the dream and she stares in confusion at the blank walls. Then, as the world comes into sharper focus, she sighs deeply. This is the fourth or fifth time she's had dreams like this that she could remember. It's not normal. Not because her friend isn't desirable, but because she knows her dreams.

They're never this good.

It's time, she thinks, to talk about this.

[freelife]

The time to talk happened to be February 14th. The plan that Evie proposed had been simple: come on over, we'll drink and watch horror movies. it just happened to be on February 14th and maybe there would be overpriced heart-shaped chocolates.

Just to eat. Not for any other sort of reason, why would you ever think that?

Truthfully, the dreams had been on the forefront of Evie's mind, and she'd almost canceled her plans. But that would be rude, they'd been planning this before any dreams happened and what did dreams even mean, anyway? Evie wasn't the sort to put any sort of stock into them.

Still, was it just her, or were things a bit odd between her and Natasha, as they sat drinking wine on her couch. "Is everything alright?" She asked the other woman.

[outstandingbalance]

Friend was a word for it. And her stance was consistent with it, in a weird way. She projected a level of comfort she rarely exhibited. Not because she wasn't at ease around Daryl, but because she was rarely at ease.

This is a dream, though.

So here, she smiles and the expression narrows her eyes and curls the edges of her lips playfully. "Well, I was thinking if I was lucky, you'd bend me over your work bench."

[outstandingbalance]

Natasha had been lost in thought, not paying attention to the movie that had been playing for half an hour or so now. Memories of the dreams from recent nights surface sitting next to her friend, distracting her.

She shakes off her reverie when Evie speaks up. "Of course. Why wouldn't it be?"

[freelife]

"You've been quiet most of the movie," she says, as though it's not a huge deal, just some casual observation she made.

"Usually you're not so quiet." Usually they sat closer. Though Evie was finding herself feeling oddly grateful for the space. And yet so isolated.

[outstandingbalance]

"I'm not normally that loud, am I?" she asks it wryly, dodging the implication at first, but her memories aren't so easily dismissed. She sets down her wine and shifts, leaning a little closer as she admits, "Guess there's a lot on my mind. Sorry about that."

[baisant]

Jean-Claude raises his eyebrows slightly, for a moment slightly uncertain whether this is Daryl's way of flirting with him or whether he really is asking him whether he's brought raw meat with him in his basket. Perhaps he has, for that matter. Dreams are strange things, and this man is not entirely human himself, after all.

He watches the way the other man's fingers play against his ankle for a long moment, before turning back to the basket. Making a show of searching his way through it, a tease as he offers, "Perhaps we have something in here that will do..."

[freelife]

"No, but you're more..." she glances at the other woman. "Comfortable...?" Was that the right word? When did having friends become this strange?

She nods. "I understand. If there's anything you wish to talk about, you know you count on me." They were friends. No matter what weird dreams said.

[dirtyredneck]

"Nah," he shook his head, letting his stubble brush along her neck and shoulder. "Give him more. He deserves it. He's been good today."

Yes, he was definitely encouraging a sugar rush later, but that was the downfall privilege of being a parent, right?

After a second he settled his forehead into her shoulderblade, nuzzling at her like the cat he was, "It's been a good day all around, really. But I still missed you when I was working."

[baisant]

Jean-Claude laughs and the sound of it is low and warm. The appearance of the vendor is a little extreme but why let it get in the way of his display. One by one, his long, pale, elegant fingers work their way down the line of his jacket, popping the buttons one by one until the entire piece is completely undone, then he starts to shimmy out of the fabric, understanding just how much of a tease he is being because he is doing it on purpose.

Once the velvet jacket has been removed, Jean-Claude turns to gracefully bend and drape it across a bench behind himself, happening to give her what he knows is an exquisite view of his well-shaped backside, before turning back with a casual look on his face.

"It is better," he replies, "but the day is still warm to be wearing quite so many layers as this."

[dirtyredneck]

If she was lucky? Hell, the lucky one in this situation was Daryl. He pushed himself up off the floor and stood in front of Nat. One hand slipped to her waist and he started walking her backwards. Slowly. Toward that bench.

"Oh yeah? It's pretty dirty," he drawled, playful and teasing. "You wanting me to get you dirty?"

[dirtyredneck]

Daryl did like raw meat more than fruit. Though he had been intending the request to be something of a double entandre. Something not quite as uncouth as something Merle or his father would have said. It didn't seem to work. Just his luck, even in his dreams he was bad at the whole flirting thing.

So while Jean-Claude had his attention on the basket and his eyes elsewhere, Daryl pushed himself up and onto his hands and knees. Then moved slowly closer until he could casually flop himself down next to JC. On his back. His head coming to rest on the man's thigh. He leaned his chin up and let his eyebrows raise, "Find anything?"

[outstandingbalance]

"No, it's nothing." She answers quickly, her first instinct again to brush off the question. She doesn't stop there, but even admitting more, Natasha can't bring herself to treat it seriously. Not in the light of day.

Metaphorically speaking.

"It's silly. I've been having these dreams—just having some trouble shaking them."

[freelife]

She frowns, but only slightly. It's really the flicker of movement in the corner of her mouth.

Then Natasha says dreams, and Evie finds herself leaning in instinctively. "What about them?" she says as casually as she can. "You do know you can tell me anything, I hope you know that." She reaches out and gingerly puts her hand on Natasha's knee. It's a comforting gesture.

[outstandingbalance]

Evie might mean it as a comforting gesture, but while Natasha enjoys the touch, it's far from relaxing. A little thrill goes up her leg in response.

"It's silly," she says. "And strange. I think—something strange is going on here."

[outstandingbalance]

"Oh, I very much hoping you will." She let him guide her back, light and responsive as a dancer under his hand and a chuckle in her voice turning her words into something like a purr. Her arms slid over his shoulders, drawing him down closer to her level. "The dirtier the better."

[dredefulchilde]

"Peachy keen," Joscelin replies sarcastically. It was a fluke. It had to have been. He sighs and straightens

"But I shall be as magnanimous in defeat as in victory. Did you want to play again, or can I get you another drink?"

[freelife]

For a moment, Evie freezes. Going on here? Did Natasha know about Evie's dreams, somehow? How soft her lips had felt, the taste of strawberries and the warmth of her breasts...

No. It was just a dream, she had to focus. "What do you mean?"

[outstandingbalance]

"I'm game for a rematch if you are." Natasha has a new strategy in mind for this one. Perhaps it's not entirely fair, but she came here expecting to play a centuries old strategist, but while Joscelin might have experience, he's just as impulsive and childish in other ways as ever.

"But we don't have to rush into it. I'm still working on this beer."

[outstandingbalance]

"I don't usually have dreams like that, and they've been... persistent." Natasha isn't entirely sure how to explain this. Or how to read Evie's reaction. "I made this weird, didn't I?"

[freelife]

Evie purses her lips.

"No- you didn't make this weird. I've been having... strange dreams, as well." Okay, cards on the table, apparently. "More cohesive than your average dream, I suppose."

[excrucior]

Though he still holds the silver amulet in his hands, he does not approach with it. Instead, it seems to offer him some comfort, some thread to cling onto, as if to prove he isn't going mad, that he isn't being ensnared in some supernatural trick. His fingers clench around the amulet at Jean-Claude's words, the only indication he has been affected by them.

"I shall make no pronouncements one way or the other on that subject, my lord Jean-Claude," Micheletto answers as impassively as he can in his soft voice, though his eyes read as anything but soft right now. They are lightning streaking through a dark sky, with just as much destructive power. "Though I will say I do not protest my dreams, only the methods by which I dream them. I dream once a century, or less. To have such a dream reappear nightly is unprecedented."

[outstandingbalance]

Natasha's chin comes up at that, her attention sharpening. She has thought that something was strange her, even toyed with the idea of unnatural. This lends some credence to what she'd considered a paranoid theory.

"There was a horse back ride—and I was in a corset."

[freelife]

Oh. Oh god. Evie blanches, then flushes, ducking her head to try to hide it. How awful- to be blushing, but the reminder of how amazing Natasha had looked, how badly she'd wanted to rest her cheek against her fair flesh...

"And there were strawberries..."