[closed] you fall through the trees & you pray with your knees on the ground

[deadthing]

WHO: Noah Czerny + Joseph Kavinsky + Josh Foley (+possibly other Meadows residents or people trying to help)
WHERE: The Meadows
WHEN: backdated to during phase 2 of Joker plot
WHAT: information sharing / trying to save a life
WARNINGS: discussion of death? and whatever horrible things come out of K's mouth



[Noah can't sit still while Ronan is unmade. Unfortunately, he can't do anything useful either--just hover and fuss. The nightwash continues unabated despite everything and there is no demon at the center of this. Only tiny machines misfiring and failing to preserve Ronan in place of the magic his body needs.

Now Kavinsky is here - summoned, apparently, by Kylo Ren - and he's brought some other guy Noah doesn't know. Okay, so he can (begrudgingly) admit it makes sense to consult another dreamer on this. Maybe Kavinsky knows something more about it. Maybe there's something the two of them can do that Ronan couldn't manage alone in this state. But Noah can't help being wary of him, after everything. (And of Josh, at first, purely by association.) So he's keeping a very close eye. Wherever Kavinsky goes in the Meadows, he has a shadow.

It seems though that Kavinsky is genuinely here to help and Noah does have the faint shape of an idea kicking around on how to do that... If he's willing to try. If it isn't too big. If it's actually possible.]

Comments

[pillz]

[it has been a few hours since he brought josh here. the two boys showed up looking rumpled, crazy-eyed, uneven from the speedy drive over. kavinsky's hair is inexplicably (or not so inexplicably) joker-green; josh arrived with the whole skin of his body very explicably, typically, shiny gold. they had like six gallons of bottled water in the back, just 'in case.'

it didn't take them long to take stock of murphy going bonkers in the barn, the other denizens reduced to anxious phantoms presiding over ronan's bedside.

ergo, already, joseph kavinsky has tried to dream many things.

first, there was an iridescent pill, the size of a river pearl. if it did anything for ronan, it did not do much.

a fucking battery of some unimaginable type. with blue lightning visible inside its translucent barrel-shaped belly, and something else twisting from the ends, which shimmered with needles of migraine-artefact light while also containing shards of absolute blackness, and it made one ill to look at. cords to connect to ronan's temples.

and now there's a fucking cryochamber too, hanging out in the corner of a barn, where harvest mice are making nests under its chrome feet. two cryochambers, technically, because the first one had come out with a body inside of it.

a half dozen other things. kavinsky has become a slightly more creative person since he came into this world, though not more patient. he has more ideas. as each successive one fails and black fluid keeps crawling out of ronan's mouth, the bulgarian would-be mobster doesn't seem to be upset, exactly, the expression on his gaunt face characteristically empty, between bouts of mania. i mean, if you ignore the fact that he took a couple minutes to get kylo ren's axe from the yard and put it through the glass of the one cryochamber.

it's fine.

none of it has worked. maybe that's also fine. something will work later. he has a lot of ideas.

kavinsky's sitting outside in the grass right now, next to his roommate. staring blankly as gossamer gadflies go by, drinking a cup of: water. he'll go under again shortly. he has a plan. this is fine. he pulls a twizzler out of the package near his calf, and whacks josh on the arm with it, grunting the offer. he's degraded into nonverbal communication for a couple minutes now.]

[goldtoxicity]

[ this isn't the first time josh hasn't been able to heal someone. the only mercy is that his biokinesis isn't getting a proper signal, he's not even able to sense what it is that he can't fix.

not that he'd know what to do with magic. he's not magic. he's pure biology and human evolution, his only real experience with magic had been in hell. demons die the same way as everything else, but what the hell do you do about a fading dream? he barely understands what exactly is going on, just that the nanomachines are fucked for everyone and that Joker guy is to blame.

what he can do is be on standby for kavinsky. use the magic of an intermittent healing touch to make sure he doesn't burn himself out. knees pulled up to his chest, eyes up at the sky. the twizzler beating his arm catches him off-guard and he starts, pulled back to reality and takes the candy despite really not being all that hungry. he jams one end in his mouth. ]

Thanks.

[ okay, stop moping. this isn't about you, foley, get your head in the game. he chews the twizzler absently and checks his phone. ]

[pillz]

[kavinsky fights down the urge to go find that axe again. there's nothing else worth hitting with an axe out here. kylo ren has had his own aggression to work out; the meadows has firewood for days.]

I might do like an IV thing next.

[he's talking to himself, kind of. but also josh is here, which is nice -- makes him feel less insane for making remarks out loud that nobody can help him parse. he's the only dreamer here available for discussion. ronan's given up already. it is one thousand percent, a bad sign, when joseph kavinsky is the most hopeful person who can do something to help out in the room, but it'd be great if no one pointed that out.

he is in real life very bad at hope.] Maybe if it goes into his blood it'll be hitting closer to whatever that black shit is coming from. [he wipes a hand over his forehead, but it comes away dry.] I really thought cryo could work.

[deadthing]

[Quiet worry renders Noah something insubstantial, easily overlooked where he tucks against a corner of the farmhouse and watches. When Kavinsky starts spitballing for the next attempt though, he firms up in both form and resolve and steps far enough out into the grass to make himself heard.]

It's not going to work.

[Just like none of the other things have worked. Because what Ronan needs is not a thing, not exactly. More like a source of things.]

[goldtoxicity]

[ an iv wouldn't work in the traditional sense, but dreams are something he doesn't understand at all. maybe it will, maybe it won't.

but josh jumps when noah approaches. not subtly either, startling and grabbing fistfuls of the earth below him. jesus. his head whips around. ]

Uh... [ stop saying uh. he runs his fingers through his hair, glancing from the newcomer to kavinsky. ] So what -- what would work?

[pillz]

[kavinsky is surprised, but he doesn't startle. too many years of not minding punches to the head and vehicular collisions have rendered him curiously flat when it comes to sudden, even spooky events.

he squints up through the sunshine at the boy with the smudge on his cheek. brief, nonverbal breakfast nook encounters aside at the meadows, he vaguely remembers talking to noah, not too long ago. but he was out of his fucking mind at ronan's birthday, and half because of disassociation, half because he chooses not to, but kavinsky doesn't really remember. it doesn't seem real. he decides it isn't. he nods in greeting, his eyes flat, impatient.]

Sup, Czerny.

[he snaps his fingers and points at josh. 'what he said.']

[deadthing]

[Sometimes Noah feels guilty for startling people when he does his spooky ghost entrance thing, but on this occasion he hardly registers it. He's trying to put the words together in his own mind before he says them out loud and it's... tricky.]

Back home, when you dreamed, it pulled energy from the line. Right? [Though Josh was the one who asked, by necessity he directs this more toward Kavinsky. Expecting him to understand and pick up on where he's going with the thought.] But there isn't one here.

Maybe if there was...

[A whole, globe-spanning ley line is a tall order. But even a fragment of a ley line, or something like one, running through the farm might help.]

[goldtoxicity]

[ Josh hasn't the foggiest idea what line he's talking about could be. but the comment isn't really for him, is it? It's dream stuff. Magic.

he glances at kavinsky. ]

Is that a thing he can bring? [ scratching his head. ] Like... with more juice?

[pillz]

[in this particular instance, kavinsky does not seem to be cashing in his cluepons either. his face is carefully neutral as he stares up at noah, that omg familiar mask of soulless coke head steel.] Henrietta was a little bit different from dreaming in Jersey, [he allows, finally. he glances at josh, then back at noah.]

What 'line,' man?

[the concept itches on the back of his mind. a dim recollection of ronan's fear, what drove him to finally text kavinsky back, because apparently!! a party hadn't been good enough. something about the end of the world. how naive they'd been, to believe such events to be rare.]

[deadthing]

[Noah fidgets, shifting his attention to Josh.]

I don't know. It might be too big.

[But dreamers are capable of so many impossible things; it's worth a try. To Kavinsky, he clarifies:]

The ley line.

[Maybe Kavinsky called it something else...? Noah supposes he probably didn't do all the woo woo research that they had for the sake of the quest. (Or that he and Whelk had done years earlier, back when looking for a mystical energy source seemed like a good way of killing time on weekends.) He can describe what it feels like, if he has to. After all, he was once intimately connected.]

[goldtoxicity]

[ everything on josh's face says: what the fuck is a "lay line". what comes to mind is immediately and profoundly unhelpful. he's pretty sure planking won't solve this.

but he's not mystical. he is the very opposite of that. scratching the bridge of his nose. ]

This is over my head... But I can try to use my powers to reduce any strain.

[ try is the key word. ]

[pillz]

[kavinsky's brow creases with 'what the fuck,' but at least he doesn't say anything impudent or shitty out loud. there are plenty of people he could take out his temper on, but he's not doing it, which probably means that something is wrong.

he takes out his phone and puts 'ley line' into their equivalent of google. boogle? doogle. he xoogles it, and an eyebrow slowly cranes itself up as he scans the words, half-listening to josh make his promises. this would be big, it's true. it would be fucking huge.]

Appreciate the sentiment, Foley, [he says, finally.] But you probably shouldn't be around at all when I do this.

[he doesn't say 'try to.' trying is for pussies and the english, as far as he's concerned, because he is an assbutt. he'll do it.]

There ain't a leyline to feed the leyline, so it's gonna come out of whatever's alive.

[deadthing]

[Noah waits quietly, shifting from foot to foot, while Kavinsky does his xoogling. Since he's not exactly clear on how Josh's power works, he doesn't know whether to yay or nay that suggestion. But then Kavinsky says it's a no-go, because--]

What?

[He nearly yelps. Of course the energy has to come from somewhere, but somehow that hadn't occurred to him.]

Then where are you going to do it?

[Because K can't dream here if he's going to drain the farm!]

[goldtoxicity]

Wait, no, what?

[ he gets it. because - well, creation and destruction go hand in hand, don't they? noah clearly picks up whatever kavinsky's putting down here, it has something to do with his dreaming power, right? right.

so the leylines feed it?]

Hold on a second... Wouldn't it be better for me to stay? I'm - like, immortal, man. And you can't get much more alive than a healer. That makes a better battery.

cw animal harm etc.

[pillz]

[now they all freak out. kavinsky winces subtly. being a dreamer is dope as hell, because superpowers, but the expense tends to evoke that reaction. even, apparently, from a creature as fey and otherworldly as noah czerny and whatever his whole weird situation is going on.]

Your powers ain't working right. Are they? Don't lie to me, man. [that part is for josh, obviously. kavinsky lurches up onto his feet with effort, sucking in a deep lungful of chilly meadows-sweet air. god, it was always so crisp out here, he hated it. he's a creature of smog and recirculated air-conditioning.]

I'll head out a few thousand yards. [maybe find a herd of roving deer. a coma never killed any four-legged creature.] Maybe Ren can help funnel some more energy toward me. It'll be cool, Foley. Don't worry. My dreams never use my energy.

[he's in -- a mood, obviously, because the next moment he angles noah a sidelong glance and offers, with cheerful note of sarcasm,] Sorry.

[this is a tenuous working relationship. but it is one!]

[deadthing]

[Hey, it's kind of an important detail! To him, especially. Back home, Noah had been unable to manifest while Kavinsky was dreaming the ley line dry - bad! scary! very stressful! - but at least he'd come back when the energy did. It's different when the source is regular living creatures. What's going to happen to them?

But Ronan needs this. As long as Kavinsky goes out far enough to only harm wild animals, not any of the farm residents or livestock or pets... It's an acceptable sacrifice. He tucks his arms around himself, clearly uncomfortable, but nods. Fine. Do that. The sarcasm he lets go, though his already-strained expression grows more so.]

I'll get Kylo. [Having drawn on his considerable Force connection once himself, Noah thinks that's not a terrible idea. If it can be done safely. Josh, on the other hand, probably shouldn't risk it.]

[goldtoxicity]

No, but...

[ got him there, he guesses. josh frowns. this isn't the first time he's witnessed a power that does this kind of thing, takes from the life around it to sustain itself, but...

There's also a lot of meaning in that sorry that he doesn't get, but those blank eyes follow it.

He scratches his head and frowns, opting to stay put. He's pretty cavalier with his own life. Fidgety about the idea of other people's (or animals) being at risk, but what can you do? ]

If you need a boost, man, just... text me I guess.