it only takes a spark to tear the world apart

[measuringdicks]

Who: Richie Tozier and Sayo Yasuda!
What: Fishers of Dreams lighthouse prompt from the March TDM, or: Sayo meets Richie. Nobody has a good time.
When: Early April.
Where: The lighthouse!

Content Warnings: Lighthouse warnings here, so sleep deprivation, hallucinations, cults, nightmarish monsters! also, blanket warnings for both Stephen King and Umineko here. biggest ones I can think of: clowns, child death, massacres, murder, internalized homophobia and transphobia. will update with more as thread continues.

The color drains out of the lighthouse, and the first thing Richie thinks as he steps out onto the beach is, Ah, shit, this again? But there's no sky being torn into pieces right in front of him, no buildings crumbling, no worms shaking the ground under his feet, so he hauls his backpack up and pulls a granola bar from one of the pockets, absently feeding it to his Mimikyu, riding along on his shoulder.

"Whaddaya think, Venk?" he says. "If we go any further, do you think we're gonna get fucked in the ass? Metaphorically, I mean."

Venkman just shrugs, in answer. Richie decides to interpret that as, Maybe, but I kinda wanna go see. He likes to think he's gotten good at interpreting what the little guy says, after all.

He's trudged on forward a few meters towards one of the distant lighthouses when he hears the sound of footsteps behind him. Venk tenses, but Richie forces himself to relax, adopting a casual demeanor even as his hand slips into his pocket to frantically look for something he can defend himself with. Nothing—zip, zilch, nada. Time to put his money where his mouth is and hope he can talk himself out of this one, or just run if he needs to.

He turns. Blinks.

Dark hair, a little messy—hadn't Ange mentioned her family's murderer having dark hair? Plenty of Sleepers have dark hair, dumbass, he tells himself, and anyway you've got dark hair and you didn't kill an entire fucking family, so. Still, he holds himself a little warily, hoping this stranger will chalk it up to just good old Trench-induced paranoia.

"Hey!" He gives a wave. "You a Sleeper? Because this is gonna get fucking embarrassing if you're one of those creepy fishermen."

Comments

[forwantofahorse]

It feels as though Sayo's been wandering this network of lighthouses, going from beacon to beacon in the dark mists, forever. A tidy metaphor for what it was like to live in Trench. Including the nightmares around the corner. Sayo would applaud the witchcraft on display if she wasn't caught up in it herself, which was starting to become her typical reaction to Trench's nonsense.

Likewise, she's wary as she approaches Richie, fingers twitching for a Winchester that isn't there. Sayo wouldn't put it past this place to put monsters in the guise of children, especially since the sailors who caught her in the trap of hope (once again, how fitting) seemed so childish.

But when swears and sarcasm tumble from Richie's mouth, she relaxes. The illusions of the Waking World could be unsettling, uncannily happy, even normal-seeming... but they were very rarely crass. "I'm a Sleeper, yes. A little more literally than most days, but I suppose you're in the same predicament." She clicks her tongue exaggeratedly. "Honestly, volunteer organizations are getting so pushy nowadays. First cookies, now bizarre charms and strange nightmares? It's quite the disgrace."

Beatrice can dish out snark like nobody else, and Sayo inherited that tendency.

[measuringdicks]

What Sayo sees as witchcraft, Richie sees as one more thing to get through, the way he's been doing since a Porter pulled him from Derry and into a world of heroes on the brink of an apocalypse. Unlike Sayo, he's still wary when she approaches, but the smile on his face is at least a little bit real. He won't lie, it's good to see another Sleeper.

Still. Ange asked him to be careful, so careful he'll be. Anyway, this person might not even be the murderer she was talking about.

"Yep," he says, popping the p. "Wonder what's gonna be waiting to fuck us up this time. Bet it's got too many teeth." His voice shifts, and it's a surprise to hear a breathy, husky voice trying to sound feminine out of this lanky child, "The better to eat you with, my dear." He even makes little clawed hands and gives a small, not-very-good growl to add to the effect.

Then his hands drop. "They oughta hold bake sales and put their weird nightmare bullshit in whatever they sell," he says. "If they were gonna drag us into some magic nightmare anyway, the least they could've done was feed me some fucking cake first. I'd be in the middle of a shitty nightmare realm, sure, but at least I'd get cake out of it."

[forwantofahorse]

"Kyahahahaha!" Sayo throws back her head in a witchy, but genuine, cackle at Richie's impression, the sheer ridiculousness of it somehow making the situation less dire. She'd been worried that the banter between the cousins after the murder sounded out of place when she wrote her message bottles, but Sayo's experiences in Trench have taught her that trading quips and jokes was as great way to relieve pressure as those cheesy American action flicks had implied.

"This all being a simple case of a big bad wolf would be quite the relief, honestly." She cracks a smile. "Where I'm from, they were just a convenient illusion to keep the kids out of the woods. It looks like we're already too lost for such a spell to help us, though..."

Cupping her chin, Sayo nods along thoughtfully with Richie's rant. "If they wanted us to get to sleep so badly, it would've been far easier to leave out warm milk and cookies at the lighthouse. That stuff is guaranteed to knock you out like a light. Even the greatest alchemists couldn't hope to concoct such a potent admixture.

"And it has the upside of being delicious for us, too."

[measuringdicks]

Sometimes humor is the only thing that can get you through something so horrific as a nightmare realm of monsters that most likely want you dead. Richie's learned that early and well, from Derry to an Earth filled with superheroes to Deerington and now here in Trench: sometimes the only thing that can keep him sane is just kidding around about it, making it seem smaller than it really is.

"I don't know shit about magic, so it wouldn't help anyway," he says, planting his hands into his pockets and slouching, kicking a pebble along as he speaks. If he doesn't look at her he won't have to wonder if this is the person who wiped out all of Ange's family. He really hopes she's not. Messy dark hair is a common trait, right? There's a lot of Sleepers who have it. "Yeah, way easier, and you'd probably even get a couple of veterans if they were hungry enough. I mean, yeah, we've gotta be more careful now around food and drinks 'cause Trench could use it to fuck with us so easily, but sometimes you just feel kinda peckish, y'know? And warm milk and cookies are better than sex."

Okay, saying that out loud, it sounds very disturbing.

"Whaddaya think they'll pull out of their ass this time?" he asks. "Memory sharing? Nightmare sharing? Oh, I'll bet it'll be some kinda trip through one of our heads. I did that with a friend one time. Wouldn't recommend it." Especially since it nearly fucked up one of the few good things Richie had in Deerington, at that early stage.

[forwantofahorse]

Sayo notes Richie's growing reluctance to look her in the eye, but doesn't quite know what to make of it. Maybe he's just uncomfortable with not being able to figure out her gender at a glance? Sayo had chosen her more androgynous look with the Cobra Kai leather jacket for the lighthouse, largely out of the practical concern from how cold it looked inside. And to be fair to Richie, if she had seen someone like, well, her when she was his age, she would've felt just as confused and awkward.

To his question, she shrugs helplessly. "I have no clue, if I'm being honest. I only came here a few months ago; I don't know the games Trench plays nearly as well as it sounds like you do." A pause, and then she sighs. "We should probably get moving. I have been here long enough to know that these kinds of things typically don't end until you make a move yourself." Another pause. "And in case you were wondering, yes, I am a girl. I know it's, um, hard to tell, but I figured I should clear that up now with the way you were..." She gestures vaguely, realizing that outright saying he was impolitely not-staring would be impolite in of itself.