JAWS • DECEMBER 2025 EVENT/TDM

[uruz]

TDM & EVENT: JAWS

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Show Me Those Pretty White Jaws

The dream has been coming in waves for those new to Sleep's touch, as a shoreline that never stays still. As a sky that never remembers to include its stars. Beneath it all, there is a voice. Her voice: silk-sweet, coaxing from just beyond the approaching wave that towers like a moving mountain. She tells you to come home. She promises it won't hurt, even if she never tells you what waits beneath. You see the shape just before the dream ends: a massive black tidal wave, yawning wide and black until it looks like a pair of jaws breaking upon you. You don't have time to resist.

You and your veteran Vessels will awaken in water.

There is no surface. No bottom. No sky. No sound but your own heartbeat and the echoes of water being slashed though, dull and endless in the still, frigid dark. You are suspended, weightless— Some may have difficulty to breathe without inhaling water the first few times, while those aligned with the waves will feel it come like second nature. Once you acclimate yourself, you'll notice that around you drift glowing filaments; thin, pulsing threads that coil like jellyfish tendrils, softly luminescent. They curl and twist through the water, and when you look closer, you realize: they show you things. Memories, maybe. Dreams, maybe. Each one unique to your gaze: a hand reaching for yours in the dark, a goodbye that never finished, a face you haven't seen in years. They are what you think love looks like. What you once needed it to be. And when you touch them, they wrap around you, gently, warmly . . . Hungrily— and begin to pull you down.

To ascend into the next level, you must let go. But not everything that binds you wants to be released. The filaments drifting through the water show you what you think love looks like— what you've built it into. They are gentle at first, beautiful even, but the longer you cling, the more they pull.

There are ways to escape them: You may bind your filament with another's and together speak aloud a shared truth: what you believe love really is. If your hearts align or at the very least come to an agreement, the threads dissolve into light and lift you upward. If your beliefs clash or contradict, the threads knot tighter, and something . . . May take interest in you.

Beneath you, something moves. Huge, silent and almost regal. It glides through the deep like a phantom, almost too large to be real. You feel its presence before you see its flash of pearl white and glowing red eyes, three on each side of its face: a shark.

The shark is here to choose its next meal. It smells grief, fear and seeks out trauma most of all. It is drawn to the most unspoken parts of you, the very parts you thought were buried, roused from the tightened ropes of what you crave in your heart. And when it chooses you, it does not bite immediately. It invites, with its jaws opening like a sanctuary and slow towards you.

Inside is I, whispers Sleep. Allow Me to have you whole, and you will be at peace. Show Me love.

Fight against her, or even with your current partner about what love is, and Sleep will open her maw, spilling tendrils from her throat and begin to stalk you. Best be prepared to fight the possessed Megalodon— She will laugh, amused as you do, like a great cat playing with its food. And if you were to be caught, well. You'll wake in the dream's next level with an undeniable prey drive, whether Token or Offering.

She will do anything to keep you here.

NOTES:

• There is no surface visible at first. Light only comes from the filaments. As characters resist, act, or ascend, a faint stained-glass shimmer begins to pulse upward, hinting at the dream's next layer.
• Sound is muffled— speech emerges as bubbles, but meaning travels regardless. Words feel heavy here. Some phrases may literally change the water (turn to light, birth dream-objects, or ripple with tension). You will do better using The Murmur as a means of communication. Luckily you have your mask on!
• The Shark always circles once it senses trouble within you. Sometimes close, sometimes far, but always felt. If characters listen closely, they can hear the echo of One's voice coming from inside it: pleading with a haunted, at times screaming melody.

TOKEN EFFECTS

• The dream bends subtly around Tokens, especially at the whims of an Aquamancer. Walls of pressure open before them, and filaments shift course as if expecting them. This can make their path easier, unless they start to doubt their purpose.
• Tokens perceive emotional resonance as currents in the water such as subtle flows of energy. These can guide them (or others) toward escape paths, or signal when the shark is near.
• When a Token speaks or acts with strong intent, the dream sometimes translates it into a symbolic structure: A word might become a floating glyph. A gesture might alter the filament's shape. A moment of clarity might reveal a hidden path. Other characters can interact with these dream-objects, but they're fragile, unstable, and prone to distortion by doubt.
• The deeper Tokens go, the more they feel themselves pulling apart and begin to experience dual awareness: one part dreaming, one part watching— some may even see flashes of within the shark's belly, and One's voice much louder. The deeper they go, the more detached they become, and the more they lack the ability to act at all.

OFFERING EFFECTS

• The shark is more fascinated by Offerings. It circles them often, sensing kinship— or potential. The more monstrous the Offering, the more the shark "pauses' near them, almost curious.
• Offerings feel "the pull" more clearly, particularly Merrows and other aquatic-based Offerings—they can sense where the surface might be, and where the shark intends to strike next. They may even see pulses in the water that others miss, similar to Spider Man's "spidey senses".
• An Offering may experience rapid body changes submerged. Fins may appear, bones may shift, teeth may lengthen without warning and so on. This makes their movement easier or harder, depending on how much of themselves they're holding back or how apt their monstrous forms are at swimming.
• Some Offerings may feel drawn to the shark— not in fear, but in understanding. They may see themselves in it, and vice versa— One's song in particular is hypnotic, and for split moments you may understand his pain through his words. This might make you more prone to being consumed, though, so hopefully your partner can help you out of it—?.

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Watching Me With Eyes Of A Predator

The surface you breach is not water— it's glass.

You strike it with the force of falling sky. It fractures beneath you in a bloom of painted light. For one weightless moment, the dream hesitates, sputters. Then the world shatters, and you fall with the cascade.

Water pours through the crack in the ceiling, carrying you down in ribbons of color and a shattering splash. Stained glass shards drift like petals through the now collapsing roof, and you eventually land not in sand, but upon a cathedral floor, slick with tide. Around you, the water spreads, pooling across the stone and swallowing the walls in a rising hush as it finds escape through the doors.

The cathedral is vast, impossibly so. Its architecture towers, crooked and immaculate, built more from longing than stone. No altar awaits you. No congregation. Only the sensation of having trespassed into something meant to be private. Veteran Vessels may recognize this cathedral as St. Patrick's— before it was drenched in One's blood sacrifice.

High above and surrounding you, the stained-glass mosaics churn with captured light. f you linger beneath one of the window's rays, your appearance may begin to change under the light. You appear as someone else sees you. Be it a hero. A monster. A disappointment. A god. A weakness. A temptation. Even a burden. That version of you clings to your dream-body like a second skin; uncomfortable, intimate, and undeniable. For some, it may be beautiful. For others, unbearable.

If you and another stand beneath the same window, you may each appear as the other secretly imagines. There is no control and no negotiation. Only truth twisted through the lens of want, resentment, fear, or love. And it doesn't go away until you leave the light.

Eventually, the cathedral doors open by dream's will. Beyond them lies a cloister garden: narrow paths, pale trees, and wild flowers that bloom in stillness. At the far end, behind the overgrowth and ruined arches, you see a hollow.

It is a corridor where the dream collapses inward, twisting, warped, half-swallowed in fog and dread. Its stones pulse faintly beneath a shallow film of water. Black tendrils reach from its depths like roots, veins, twitching toward sound, warmth, and movement. You see them dragging matter into the earth, and between them lie bones, contorted and fresh, half-consumed.

And farther still, a body that still breathes. Glimpsed only briefly, A masked man's form is stretched by the hollow's gravity, arms pinned behind the veil. He does not move, or speak. Or perhaps, he cannot. The hollow does not let him go and will not, should you make your attempts. If you step foot in the hollows that have consumed him, you too will be consumed. A three eyed Tod sits at the hollow's edge, a single bushy tail splitting into three, as its body plays with illusion like smoke put to dance over fire. It says, as its head floats up and its maw splits into a grin too cheshire to ignore: Wearing shoes, yet no feet in sight. You'll hear steps pound in the death of night. What is it that you need, to cross this narrow blight?

It disappears and only leaves you the riddle to chew on.

Nothing living can cross the hollow, you'll soon find. Nothing except . . . The Nightmares.

Just outside the garden's boundary, you'll find horses built from wind and shadow, flickering at the edge of your vision. Their bodies are black— not the color, but the absence, swallowing all light. Some of their craniums cound be seen, others have a jutting horn of bone from their foreheads. Where eyes should be, there are six: three stacked on each side of the skull, glowing dimly red like distant embers beneath ice. Their manes flow like torn fabric, like drifting vapor that trails behind them like the smoke from a snuffed candle. Their maws are too damn wide to be herbivorous, yet they seem to enjoy the act of grazing. They wait, unchained and wild in a herd.

This is the only way forward. Only they can pass through the hollow untouched. But how to ride one—? You may chase them. You may plead, command, kneel. You may offer them all your need and all your love, promises that you will provide if they become your steed. But they were not made to answer it. For every Vessel, there is one single Nightmare that will choose them, and thus you will choose each other. They have their own personalities, some more aggressive or shyer than others. The harder you reach, the faster they vanish or harshed they will attack if unready. Try to mount one through force, and you'll regret ever trying. Try to bind one, and it will break you.

But if you are patient, if you figure out its nature and how to please it— your Nightmare may come closer. One may circle you. It may bow its head. Their snort is warm and real against your palm. If successful, it will lower itself to its knees. If you've got the height, they will simply wait, patiently, for you to get on their backs (Or not; there are plenty of sassy mares out there).

If you accept, you might not be taken somewhere safe, but you will be taken somewhere true, away from here. And if you force your want upon them, if you cannot let go— you will be left with something else.

In the distance, across the flooded cathedral floor, you may see One again. Flashes, glimpses. Always chasing a mare he never reaches, or the opposite— the mare chases after him.

NOTES:

• If a character successfully forms a bond with their Nightmare, it will return with them in the form of a waking world steed, officially introduced in the next event. You're free to give it the personality you wish.
• If a character attempts to force a connection with a Nightmare at any point (tries to catch, mount, command, etc.), the mare will bite or kick, which Vessels will suffer as a persistent dream-mark that will carry into the waking world.

TOKEN EFFECTS

• Light clings unnaturally to Tokens in the cathedral, especially near the stained glass. It bends around their bodies like a false halo, casting them in divine or monstrous outlines depending on who watches.
• If a Token casts or channels any magic within the cathedral or near a Nightmare, the spell does not manifest, but instead, a cold mist escapes their mouth, and the Nightmare turns to look. The dream rejects force.
• When a Nightmare looks directly at a Token, their eyes eclipse, pupils vanishing into rings of shadow. In that moment, a fragmented vision floods the Token's mind . . . not from the Nightmare, but from another character nearby. It shows the Token how that character once dreamed of them, what they feared, needed, or hoped they would become.

OFFERING EFFECTS

• The stained glass causes a subtle change in scent and physical appearance turning into a more grotesque version of this— Offerings begin to smell or look like what others most want from them.
• Offerings may always know where the Nightmares are, even when hidden. But the more they try to act on this knowledge, the harder the Nightmares are to reach.
• An Offering's body will react before they realize it, flinching from lies, bristling in moments of emotional pressure, pulling away from contact, and so on. They may startle even at gentle contact, as if something inside them is as reactive as they are.

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Where The Delicate Stops

As your Nightmare takes you through the misty hollow, you may begin to notice the empty city of Manhattan as veterans remember. There is no warning but the eerie silence that surrounds you like impossible weights. The cathedral once behind you folds inward— wrong, deep and full of pressure. It bursts through the hollow's path, through the city's street, and then— The dream ruptures.

Stone peels backward like paper. Glass liquefies mid-air. The sky above the city pulls itself inside out. Time bends sideways. And from the edges of the dream, something, someone, begins to hunt. Sleep's presence moves like the very shark she chose as a vision of her physical manifestation. She does not speak or rage. But you feel Her, rising like fever beneath the skin of Her world as the hairs at the back of your neck do. She does not want you this deep, and neither does One.

Somewhere within the collapse, you may see them— entwined, shifting, trembling. One's face is turned toward you, screaming something that doesn't reach your ears. Sleep's hands are tangled in his body. She pulls him back with a gentleness that breaks the sky, and he screams, reaching for you with his last breath before consumption. The dream convulses.

The Nightmares bolt with you still on them.

The city rises to meet you from the shadows, but it's not the city you know. Skyscrapers twist at unnatural angles. Streets flood, then dry, then flood again. Tendrils burst from subway grates and gutters, slashing upward like tongues. Streetlights spin like compass needles. Cars levitate, crash, freeze midair. You move through it all at breakneck speed, but the exit keeps shifting— a hole in the world that flickers just beyond reach where you see your body, fast asleep.

Somewhere in the chaos, a few Nightmares are caught. Sleep strikes like lightning— she coils like a viper and tightens like a vice. One touch from Her, and your Nightmare collapses mid-gallop, its body unraveling into smoke and light. No sound. No scream. Just absence. And you fall right off it like a ragdoll.

Others fall beneath impact, too— a wrong turn, a shattered wall, a burst of heat from One's grief. A broken leg. A crash. A wound too deep to ride through. If your steed is lost, you fall. And if no one reaches for you, you stay fallen. Others are near, and their Nightmares still run. All of you have a terrible dread in your bones— if you are caught or left behind, the consequences will be dire. You might not even wake up. So, call out. Cling. Climb. Share. Two Vessels on one mount. Anything to survive and flee as the dreamscape tightens its wrathful grip around you.

Sleep calls inside your spine. You can't make out what She says. One answers, the same blur of garbled words in your marrow. And then, just before the dream can take you, just before you reach an exit— you rise.

Your body lifts from the Nightmare as it paddles the air with desperation, it too rising. You're pulled upward, weightless, as if a thread inside your heart has been yanked by a furious god. You float, twist in the air. Your vision glows white.

We've got you.

And then you wake up— mid-air in the waking world.

Your body slams into your bed, floor, street, soil, wherever it was that you had slept. Reality greets you with terrible impact.

NOTES

• If a character does not find a mount in time, they may be caught in the dream collapse. They still wake— but they wake broken. These characters may wake up bruised, disoriented, or emotionally fragmented, and this can be explored in the next waking world event.

TOKEN EFFECTS

• Any Tether they feel becomes unstable—splintered. For brief moments, they feel it breaking and re-forming again and again, with slight differences each time.
• The more emotionally charged they are, the more the dream pulls toward them; tendrils snap faster, debris veers unnaturally close.
• Their body flickers with signs of their own magic—sigils, symbols, runes— burning just beneath the surface of their skin like constellations. These glow brighter as the dream collapses, as if trying to tear free.

OFFERING EFFECTS

• Where Offerings are grazed or injured, they bleed light, not red. It floats up like mist.
• They hear One's heartbeat, not theirs, and it speeds in panic. It affects their own pulse, the mare under them . . .
• The Nightmare no longer follows the Offering's will—it will respond to their fear instead.

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OOC NOTES

➤ Welcome to Somnia's third TDM, which doubles as the month's gamewide event!
➤ This TDM is considered game canon. You are free to have your character remember as many details as possible when they wake up.
➤ Only new characters are free to experiment with the Vessel options, Token or Offering to your liking; this is a dreamscape, so multiple/different situations for you to really test which option you like most is possible. Current characters must remain as their chosen Vessel type unless you requested a switch, which can be done on the Taken page.
➤ All TDMs take place within a dreamscape, meaning characters can interact with the setting without needing to apply. Come have fun with us!
➤ Veteran players, I ask to please refrain from making post-event threads for the time being! We have some important information to take into account in next month's event when characters are slated to "wake up". At the very least, please wait for the information to be offered on the next plotting post. Thank you everyone for your patience!
➤ Please comment on the TDM's INVITE TL if you are a new player interested in joining the game, but don't yet have an invite. Current players or the mod may reach out to extend an invite. Once you've got one, please don't forget to comment on the Invite page so you may properly link it in your reserve and app.
➤ Questions? Please direct them to the designated questions comment linked below!

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Comments

[heavensnight]

He's flirting with her, she realizes quickly. It shouldn't come as a surprise but for a long time now, she has not been flirted with. Not a second glance looked her way so it does take her aback. It is just as astonishing to her as the giant shark circling them.

But she is nothing if not quick on her feet. She'd always had to be in matters such as these. Trying different roles to see what might work when it came to James.

"Pearl, beautiful, gorgeous, or Maria if you want to go with simple," she jokes before taking his hand and using it to pull herself closer to him. The waters are cold but his hand is so warm and how long has it been since she had been touched...? The last time was her being killed and...

No, she can't think about that.

"What should I call you? Nice to know who to say goodbye to before we're gobbled up."

[cantilevers]

Something about her drew him to her. There was a weight to her gaze, a sadness about her that he felt mirrored in himself. The shark went ignored as she took his hand and drew herself to him, and he let her decide the distance between them. She was quick on her feet, clearly good at this game if she could play along with his boldness.

"That's a lot of descriptor nicknames you fancy, Maria," he replied good-naturedly. "Do you have a favourite, or am I allowed to choose depending on the situation?"

One of tendril each crossed and tongue as they swirled in the water together, and he experienced an impression of love lost in distance. He felt it like a shock because he had experienced similar in his lifetime. He'd also seen it over and over again. The tendrils released their grip.

"I'm Vander, but I'll let you call me whatever you like if it's said nicely enough," he said with a big smile. "I'll protect you, okay? I'll wedge in its throat and you can swim away."

[heavensnight]

It is just harmless flirting, she thinks. Not a very fitting time to be flirting but she was guilty of that as well. James had always seemed confused by her tendencies to flirt with him at any given chance. Even when they were surrounded by awful and horrid things. It had been a survival tactic, it never worked, but it just came naturally to her. Just like it must for Vander.

But this is all new and she does pause as she tries to think if she does know anybody named Vander. Had Mary? Had James? She swims through their memories she had been granted and no, she does not know of a Vander. His face is not familiar. And it isn't like this is Silent Hill. Part of her knows that well even if she can't quite understand what is happening.

It's been too long of a pause, she worries, even if it was just a brief few seconds. So she just looks down at their joined hands and decides that whatever this, whatever will be, she will try to enjoy this moment. Whoever this man may be, he is the first to look at her and if he is some delusion, or not real...it's fine. She is not real either. But all she wants is a conversation, company, it's all she's ever wanted. It seems like Vander wants it as well.

"Surprise me, handsome." There is a smile in return before she turns her head to look around them, her blond hair following around her in the water as she eyes the shark eying them. The tendrils around them just feel like a crowd, like it keeps them apart from any goal. They are here, though, together. Surrounded by a lot and nothing all at once.

"But as much as I appreciate the sentiment, I'm not sure I'd like to lose you so quickly. Big gestures are nice and all that but it's harder to stick around, you know?" There's an ache in her heart at her own words as she remembers the loneliness and boredom of staring up at the ceiling, wishing for the only voice that ever mattered.

[cantilevers]

Vander also recognized that this was neither the time nor the place to be flirting with a lady that he had just met in a hopeless ocean covered in tendrils while a shark circled them. Neither of them clearly knew where they were, what they were doing, or if this was some manner of hallucination. Honestly? He was fine with it all. He'd flirted in other dangerous situations before, just not for a long time. Hopefully she didn't find him too rusty.

Yet, what else was he to do? He remembered dying (maybe?) and then everything after that clear picture was jumbled up and leaked together in a haze of torturous pain, howls, long stretches of silence and faint impressions of memories. If he floated around trying to parse it out, he might well go mad.

This was easier. She made things easier. He had just learned her name, yet her presence was the first he had met wherever he was and he found it grounding. That was enough.

"Well, well, I am good at surprises," he reflected thoughtfully. He used their joined hands to pull her closer, using his body as a bit of a shield as the shark continued to eye them. It seemed to lose some interest as they were not struggling or being pulled further down in the depths. He lifted his other hand to touch some of her blonde hair, noting the pink tips. "Pink hair, huh? It looks good on you, beautiful." They might have been playing, but he noted that their play seemed to be holding off doom, so best to lean into it.

"Oh, it almost sounds like you've grown attached to me already and we've only just met. It must be my lucky day," he reflected playfully. "And you're right. You deserve a man who will have your back always, show up when you need him and respect distance when you don't." It was generalities, of course. They were the kinds of advice he offered his daughters and sons alike... though ah, best not to think on it. He'd spoil the mood.

[heavensnight]

Maria thought Vander seemed practiced in flirting. For whatever reason that was. She didn't want to think about it because if he wasn't real then what did that say about her? Though Silent Hill had never granted her something like this before and she didn't think James would have a situation much like this in his mind. Maria's hell was James's hell.

And this didn't seem like his hell at all. Besides, it wasn't much of a hell with a companion. A person who seemed to welcome her presence. Maybe that was the delusion created for her.

He is trying to protect her, she thinks. Trying to keep her safe and compliment her and make her feel nice. She looks him over, trying to find some hint about what he might be. But all she sees is just a man. No implication of anything else.

She laughs at his comment about the kind of man she deserves and it isn't mocking. Just almost surprised because there is no beating around the bush. He isn't saying he will be that man, that he even wants to, but he just isn't shying away. It's refreshing. There's no awkward pauses or surprised looks. Vander doesn't look at her like he doesn't know what to do with her. Actually, she knows he is probably a man that would know exactly how to handle her. He has already shown as much.

"Hard not to get attached when I meet a man like you. Feels like my lucky day. " Her body turns to face him directly and right now, she decides to only keep her eyes on him. Let everything else fade away. "But you agree, huh? It's hard to stay though this place seems to be making that point for us." She lifts her free hand, showing the tendrils.

[cantilevers]

She felt real. He also felt real due to the fact that he could feel his heart in his chest, feel the water against his skin and the tendrils still wrapped around him. If anything, they seemed to be the most real aspects of this place, though perhaps this was actually what the afterlife was like? He had no idea and no basis for guessing, but he was willing to lean into it.

He purposefully moved another of their tendrils in contact with each other, and he felt the wave of paternal care that he knew was a different kind of love. It felt... like she might understand that, even if the child in question was not of his blood. He loved and cared for them just the same, as was general tradition in the undercity where adults and children alike died young and frequently. The bond between parent and child was still special and warm.

The fingers in her hair dropped away so that he could take her other hand, using it to hold them together. She did not seem particularly weirded out by a complete stranger flirting and complimenting her. If anything, she seemed perfectly comfortable replying in kind and playing the same game as he does. He knew he liked her, that they would - hopefully - become friends if they managed to survive this.

"Well, you know what they say: there are many fish in the sea, just not this particular one. You might be starved for choices, but if you need a wingman, I am happy to oblige," he replied with a big smile for her. There was a sadness about her that he wanted to wipe away, even for a small amount of time. "It seems the tendrils want us to experience love in our lives and share it with others. Tell me, Maria, who was the first person that ever told you that they loved you?"

[heavensnight]

Maria has learned to stop considering real and unreal. After all, she has always felt real but she is not. Many of the delusions she lived through were not real though they would hurt her just the same. Real and not real never matter very much.

And she would like to believe this moment between them is very real. That the spark she feels between them isn't some made up thing inside of her head. Her own wish, her own manifestation that can never be. That's just too sad to consider.

"The choices are you or the shark and I don't think the shark is up for much. Not really my type anyway." Vander was trying to be friendly and she wanted to return the favor. She didn't think this conversation was something Vander meant to be taken seriously. They did just meet and Maria knew a man looking for a distraction. Vander didn't want to think about something and Maria understood that. She didn't mind.

His question does make her look at him surprised. For once, she is not quick to hide her first reaction and she shakes her head, laughing. "Aren't you subtle? Just going right for the kill and asking me about my sordid history. Take a girl out for dinner first, why don't you?" But she doesn't answer the question.

[cantilevers]

Look, maybe he was a little insane focusing on a lady he had just met in a dark ocean covered in tendrils while they were being circled by a shark? All of this felt like he was going insane, and maybe none of this was real and instead a fevered dream. She reminded him a little of Felicia after all, the easy banter and the smiles that they managed to share with each other. She was also very different from first impressions.

"Well... how should I know? Maybe sharks are your kind of thing," he reflected teasingly, turning his attention away from her to observe the shark in question. It was further away from them, deeper too, but it still was circling with its six-eyed stare. "However, it does warm me to know that you'll choose spending time with me over a monstrous shark. Really builds up the confidence over here."

He was fine with a mixture of fun banter and seriousness, but he also wanted to determine a way out of this suspended situation that they found themselves in. They couldn't stay here forever, right? And love did seem to be the theme. And what could he say? She made him curious.

Of course, her surprise told him he might have landed on a difficult subject for her. She recovered well, and he appreciated her skill at that. "I'm subtle when I need to be," he replied slyly. "Is your history that sordid? We could compare notes. All emotional scars leading to real genuine feelings between us." He was teasing, of course. Sort of. Probably. "And I will take you out for dinner as soon as we aren't about to become dinner for something else."

[heavensnight]

Vander still didn't remind her of anybody. Not of James who could barely keep up a conversation on a good day nor did he remind her of Ernest. And she didn't think Mary would have ever asked for a man like this. Perhaps somebody more available, more openly affectionate, but simply not like Vander.

But Maria thought he was the distraction she needed. From remembering what was happening before she was dropped into this ocean. Before when she was tossed aside and reminded she was not meant to be anything but a replacement. No, she did not want to think about that.

If Maria was honest, she was afraid what might come after this. When her and Vander might solve this mystery and maybe never see each other again. Maybe she would wake up back in Heaven's Night and just have to start all over again. Vander would only be a brief blip in her existence and nothing more. She wanted this to last.

"I don't think there's a subtle bone in your body. But that's fine. There isn't in mine either. If I'm being honest, the shark was never even in the running." She smiled and glanced back to the shark and then back at Vander. They did need to find a way out of this situation. At least for Vander's sake, she thought. "I'm an exotic dancer. I take my clothes off for a living so yeah, can't say I had many romantic declarations." Not a lie. "Your turn. When did someone first tell you they loved you?"

[cantilevers]

Vander had the good sense to lock mock offended at her declaration that he couldn't be subtle. Well, well, he would simply have to show her if they managed to free themselves from this predicament or perhaps on a second meeting. He could freely admit that regardless of where he went that he hoped to see her again, perhaps not right away as to not appear desperate or lonely. He knew how to play it cool.

"I can be subtle, I promise. I'll even prove it to you someday," he remarked, which was purely non-subtle on purpose. There was less miscommunication with directness anyway. He thought both of them could appreciate less miscommunication right now. "Well, that's good to know because I had a brief flush of interest in the shark, but now I can't think of anyone or anything other than you," he remarked, warmth in his tone as he flirted blatantly.

He tilted his head, wondering if she meant to shock him with her occupation. It didn't put him off at all. "I know plenty of people who take their clothes off for other people for a living, and Janna, they receive plenty of romantic declaration, usually short-lived at the peak of pleasure but you know, it's the thought that counts. You sure you weren't dancing in a gay bar and thus the wrong crowd?"

He considered for a moment, remembering the first memory of someone telling him that they loved him. "My mum is the first I remember," he remarked. "My first romantic declaration was a girl I had been seeing when I was twelve. I think I brought her a flower that day which I stole from topside for her. She was moved by my romantic prowess..."

[heavensnight]

Maria didn't know if she would see Vander again and she was afraid of thinking that far ahead. To get herself excited by the idea of doing so only to not be able to find him and perhaps facing the probability he had never been real. Perhaps it was ridiculous of her but she didn't want to think about that. It was easier to simply live in this moment and be lost in his company. Certainly more comforting to think of the present if it had him in it.

"Hard to think of anybody else when you can't go anywhere else." Maria knew what Vander meant but she wanted to tease him back. After all, she had told him she was taking him over the shark. They were both simply going with the punches.

"It was a small town, not a lot of people. Maybe I was just the town pariah. Who knows?" She doesn't seem too bothered by it, even if she thinks of the first time James had told Mary he loved her. When he had awkwardly bent down on one knee with a ring he'd worried over if Mary would love and stumbled when he got back up. How Mary had written her own vows and James had tried, had failed, but said the usual lines with as much emotion as he could muster. Maria knew of love. It had just never been hers and so not her story to tell.

So it was better not to think of her own situation. Focus on Vander.

"Now that's cute. I would be moved, too. How doesn't someone fall for that?" She tilts her head. "So do you think love should be about gestures?"

[cantilevers]

"That's not true. You swim away in any direction, but it's not like there is a specific destination available to us," he said as he looked around at the deep oceanic abyss that they were floating in together. There were still some tendrils attached to them, others floating harmlessly in the water nearby. They seemed better off together for the moment. "I'm sure the shark will remain an option as long as we're here."

He made a noise of consideration at her details, and he gave her a look over to determine if there was something specific someone might be turned off about. He could see nothing; she was pretty, had a nice smile and excellent banter. "Who knows. Maybe it's best you're not there, so you can experience love for yourself. Maybe more fish in this sea, yeah?"

He kicked his legs at the same time that he drew her closer to him, watching for signs that he was overstepping. He hugged her with one arm and twirled them in the water, tangling tendrils in the process.

"No, love is multifaceted and dynamic. It comes with gestures, words, spending time with someone, growing together over time," he said simply. That's his version anyway. "Love is a feeling of warmth, of acceptance even when one doesn't agree with everything we do. Love is picking someone up or just sitting with them or dancing in the rain or enjoying a drink or meal. Love is uplifting and also drives someone crazy. And love is different for every person. My experience isn't yours, but I know what love feels like, to give and receive it. It's a feeling that is purely yours."

[heavensnight]

"But I don't think he's very good for conversation. I don't know about you but I'd like some small talk before my date tries to eat me up."

Maria knew he was looking her over, trying to see if there was something he might have missed. She wondered if he would ever be able to see what she really was. If she wasn't just this or just a creation meant to mock one man. But all he says is that and she gives a shrug. "Maybe not this particular sea since it's only you and me. Don't want to put the pressure on you."

He wasn't overstepping and she didn't see how he would ever. She enjoyed his company and she did wonder if she might be so lucky to see him again. Her hand went to his shoulder, her grip on him as if she didn't want to let him go, and she did laugh when he twirled them. Vander probably had a lot of experience with love, she thought. It would be hard not to want to be near him.

What he has to say about love does sound beautiful. The way he talks shows just how much he does mean it, how he has experienced it, and how it must be lovely to be part of that. "You're right. Every experience is different." It was why she couldn't really speak of Mary's experiences, of James's. They were not hers even if sometimes it felt like she had lived them herself. Mary's love was still so alive in her though it was a curse as much as it was a blessing. "Though I think sometimes people consider love to be so big and monumental. And it can feel that way but sometimes it's just about the every day moments. You see them and you remember that yeah, this is why I'm here. They remember your favorite food and they got it for you just because. It's the little things and loving somebody can be about that. It doesn't have to be life-changing...more just life-affirming."

[cantilevers]

"Wow, you have some pretty normal standards. How is a shark to match up to those?" He shook his head as if he didn't believe that she would shun the shark that remained circling them slowly, and it was clear that it was losing interest faster and faster as they simple talked with each other.

"That's very true," he agreed, looking around again. It did indeed seem to just be them out there in this wide vast ocean. "I suppose that means that I have a good chance of spending more time with you. I might be heartbroken if you're swept away on the tide to some other man or woman's arm." He wouldn't, but he did show her that he was able to pout like a proper grown man just in case.

She didn't oppose his overtures, and he fell into enjoying her company further. The hand on his shoulder was delicate but steady, self-assured as a woman who knew her own worth. Yet, he sensed that she didn't want him to pull away, and he responded by staying close until she decided that she had had enough of her knees bumping his thighs and her hair caressing his cheeks.

He hummed in agreement to her words, noting that for someone who maybe hadn't received any share of love confessions, she certainly had a grasp of what love was. The last of the tendrils loosened and released them as she spoke and he nodded his head. The shark seemed to drift further and further away.

"You sure you haven't had a lot of love confessions before? You talk about it like you know exactly what love is like for you and how you like to experience it," he said softly, still twirling them lightly in circles in the water. He watched her, wondering if the undercurrent of sadness was because that love that she had experienced had faded away or at least ended. "Are you maybe searching for love again sometime in your future, hmm?"

[heavensnight]

"I have a feeling the shark might just make it if I don't ask it out on a date." She gave him a smile. "But you, on the other hand, are pouting. So I think it's better for you if I choose you over the shark." Maria didn't think he would seriously care and she knew they were just harmlessly flirting. That's all this was. Besides, she wasn't very sure she'd be seeing him again. That she wouldn't just go back to where she came from. Right now she just wanted to live in the moment.

The tendrils didn't seem to be grabbing onto them as tightly and she only took a break to look down at them, seeing how they let them go, before her gaze returned to him.

"Just because I said I never had a lot of love confessions doesn't mean I don't know anything about love. Or how I'd like to be loved," she says quietly after he has finished twirling them and she leans in and kisses his cheek. "I'll let you know on the second question, though."

[cantilevers]

Vander winced in a theatrical manner. "I look that desperate pouting, do I? It's not my fault that meeting you has kept me afloat here." Dad joke. It was all harmless, and it was clear to him that, while both of them had no idea what was going on in their location, they were both people who could navigate the turbulence of their situations well enough. They were enjoying one another's company.

It seemed that they were more or less free now, yet he was reluctant to release her hand or the arm he slid around her mid-back to keep her close as they remained suspended in the water column together. He was enjoying their harmless teasing and flirting. It was refreshing.

"Sounds like you just have appropriate standards about how you want to be loved," he agreed warmly. "You'll find your person, Maria. Maybe not here. Maybe not when we find land, but I suspect you'll receive the love confession and treatment you deserve." He smiled as she kissed his cheek, leaning into it. She was sweet on him, huh? "Remember, I'll wingman for you if you have your eye on someone. No questions asked."

[heavensnight]

"Good one." A corny dad joke but she could appreciate his sense of humor and the fact that he could joke in this situation along with her. It didn't seem like they were in much danger anymore, though. The shark no longer seems interested in them for a meal and Maria thinks that she does have Vander to thank for that. The moments she had been sad again, that her grief had been ready to overtake her, the shark had seemed more interested. Lonely as it was, as much as she had sensed that from it. But in Vander's company, it didn't seem that way anymore.

They couldn't stay here forever, though, could they? No, they'd have to move on. To whatever, or wherever, that was. Maybe they would be parted even if that was the last thing she did want. As impossible as it was, she would like to stay here with him for as long as she could.

But then the topic changes and she is reminded of how unfair her lot is. He doesn't mean it to but her heart twinges when he tells her he believes she'll find her person because she won't. It is not going to happen because that person will not choose her. The cycle has repeated itself more than enough for her to understand the reality. "We'll see," is all she says and looks above them. The surface doesn't seem so far away now and with how the topic has changed, sadness coming back into her and the shark below blinking up at them, she knows it's time to go. Not all nice moments can last.

"I can't really swim but something tells me we should probably go opposite the shark."

[cantilevers]

Vander was also noticing that they were currently free and with limited danger now that the tendrils were no longer dragging them down and the shark had receded below them. He kept holding her even as he looked around for signs of the direction that they needed to go. Surely they weren't to remain suspended in the dark ocean the whole time? The surface appeared to be opposite to where the shark was, and he was willing to try.

Yet, he paused in starting to kick and draw them towards the surface when he noted her returned sadness. Even held close to him, she suddenly appeared all alone and adrift in emotion that she likely was not wanting to overturn and discuss with him. That was the saddest we'll see he had ever heard as well, like she had accepted a doom of loneliness.

In response, he pulled her flush against his side, tightening his arm around her back and leaned in until their foreheads could touch. "Don't go there, Maria. There is someone for you, even if it isn't someone you've met yet. Maybe this place, wherever it is, happens to be your new beginning. Our new beginning? We can handle it together for as long as we're here, okay? You're not alone and neither am I."

He hummed and began to kick his legs and moved an arm above them to swim towards the surface. He pulled them up little by little, small progress at first and then greater as they neared the surface.

"Never doubt your value, beautiful."

[heavensnight]

Maria had been made specifically for James, whether he wanted her or not. She did know that she wasn't wholly James's creation, that part of her had come from Mary as well somehow. But it didn't change the fact that all of her was meant for him. Everything about herself always was drawn to him even when she tried to fight against it. For whatever her purpose was, that was a simple truth.

And the simple truth of that was that he would not want her. He never would.

Yet Vander's touch, his presence, and his kind words make her heart flutter in a way she's never experienced before. Not with herself at least. Maria knows he is simply a good man that doesn't want her to be sad, that he doesn't want her to be alone. All that has happened here is meaningless flirting. He doesn't know her and she does not know him. But he makes her speechless, unsure of what to say, and she finds herself holding onto him tighter.

"I..." But she should try to say something. She really should. But then they're so close to the surface and it's glass. Like some kind of aquarium, she thinks for a second, until she realizes it doesn't seem the same at all. This seems breakable. Trying to think logically, trying to shake her mind of the thoughts Vander put in there now, she puts her hand up against the glass. "Think we can break it, handsome?" She chose to call him that to let him know she did hear him loud and clear.

[cantilevers]

Her silence meant he had either offended her or stolen her words from here, which felt like the latter was a feat. She had already shown herself to be a quippy lady, ready to banter back with him either with a joke or some prodding comment to set him on his back foot. He hoped that he hadn't overstepped and instead perhaps would have some food for thought on the subject.

As they both had made clear, love could come in different forms and with different people. It was all individual.

They head for the surface and find it in the form of glass. As if they were in little more than a fish bowl, yet he looked down the way that they had come and it was deep and dark like no fish bowl he had ever been in. He set his hand to it near Maria's feeling it as if to believe it was there, then he flashed her an appreciative smile at the nickname. They basically matched.

"I think there's a good chance. You at all concerned what might be on the other side, or let's just go for it together and make whatever happens work for us?"

[heavensnight]

It did take a lot to make Maria stop talking. Even with Ernest, who had made it obvious he didn't want to talk to her, she had kept going. But right now, when her last memories were of her being killed, it wasn't intelligent to keep talking at the moment. Not about her feelings, love, or her worth. Right now was not the time to keep discussing that but she had a feeling Vander wouldn't let it become a forgotten topic.

His question is valid. Is Maria concerned about what's on the other side? It would be a lie to say she wasn't just a little. More than anything, she was scared she would go back to Silent Hill. Not for anything new, even if it could be awful. Nothing seemed so bad if she had a friend like Vander with her.

"No point in just staying here and doing nothing, don't you think? You don't seem like the kind so come on. Time for me to embarrass myself with my embarrassing lack of upper arm strength."

Maria's point had always been to be weak and that definitely shows itself once she starts pounding on the glass. There isn't any headway unless Vander helps to break the glass but she was going to try to carry her weight at least a little.

[cantilevers]

It wasn't obvious what they might expect on the other side of the glass, but it was also clear that they couldn't stay here. He was concerned about if they would be able to breathe and talk on the outside of this place, but it was worth the risk he supposed. Every decision they made would come with risk.

"That's not true. We could sink and be eaten by that shark, but I agree that it would be best to see what else might await us," he said conversationally. What if they both disappeared and never saw each other again? It wouldn't be the worst, but he still felt a growing connection to her. "But you're right, I'd rather explore then do nothing."

He ran a palm over the glass then lightly banged his fist on it, testing the feel of it. He reluctantly released some of his hold on her so he could lightly brace his boot toes on the edge of the glass for stability. He drew back carefully and jabbed his hands forward, curling his fingers into a fist at the last second to not lose too much momentum. The glass cracked.

He examined the damage with his finger tips, let her have a try if she wanted and then set himself up for a second blow.

[heavensnight]

It was very possible they may never see each other again, she thought. The idea frightened her but she didn't want to focus on that. Simply she preferred to remember that she had had this moment. Real or not, she hadn't felt so alone for a moment.

Maria does take a look back at the shark down in the depths as Vander tries to break through the glass. It shows no interest and Maria knows that their time with that beast is done. Part of her wonders if it will have any other visitors, if it ever will find another like it. If maybe it is lonely, too, but she can't think on that for too long. Vander had been able to get somewhere with the glass.

Like Maria had said, her arm strength was abysmal but she did have her boots and they were in the water. She could move her body upwards to try to kick with the toe of her boot. This way would be stronger and it does seem to make the crack grow, enough for Vander's second hit to hopefully get them somewhere.

[cantilevers]

Vander shifted as Maria brought her boots up and kicked the glass, causing the crack to spider further across the area. He didn't want to risk losing her or her being injured so after she had taken her kick, he moved her around to his side where he could better protect her as he launched another punch at the glass. It cracked further, water starting to leak through.

A third punch and it gave way, throwing them out of the bowl and down somehow. He made a noise of surprise and immediately turned so that he gathered Maria to his chest as he put his back towards the ground they were falling towards. The shatter glass made the roof of a stone structure, and he only realized it was some kind of cathedral before he impacted with the ground.

He issued a low grunt as pain laced through him, yet he did not feel particularly injured with the impact. He breathed out loudly, drenched but apparently alive and well if the air in his lungs was any indication. He shifted, feeling stone under his back and then tipped his chin towards his chest so he could observe Maria.

"Look at this, making me fall for you," he said, both flirting and teasing.

[heavensnight]

None of this makes sense and yet Maria isn't too startled. Silent Hill had never made sense and there were moments that had made her question things (the quiz show was always strange) but ultimately she had known to simply keep going. Not think too hard. That is still the advice that she will adhere to here but it is still confusing how they end up in the cathedral.

But she will count herself lucky that she still has Vander.

"You were the one who grabbed me to go with you. Seems more like you made the choice to fall for me." She looks up at him and they are both in close proximity to each other but it's only something she considers for a brief moment. They have a lot to consider, even if their shark friend is gone.

"Are you okay?"