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

[roedeer]

[ jisan, his hometown, soleum knows that he was there, but that checkpoint has already passed. that was such a long time ago that even soleum raises his brow as though suspicious of saheon's claim.

soleum doesn't follow his hand at first, but knowing saheon's interest in the gem, he does look towards the mismatched glass as he can feel their hands touch briefly. he got a two for one in this "dream", and soleum doesn't even try to take it back from him, he only looks at his reflection as though searching for something.

"you must know the rest" is a touchy subject, because he does know the rest, and the kim soleum that saheon knows really shouldn't. his time mostly with the disaster management bureau as he played undercover for director ho. he has to be mindful of his actions, calculated steps to prevent any inconsistencies in the timeline that they both know despite there being an obvious one. ]

From your recount, we haven't seen each other in almost a year. I can't measure your disappearance completely... especially when we were together no less than twenty minutes ago.

[ his hands drop down to his side as he stares at the other, crimson eyes focused on the slightest change of his expression around the jaw. the mask is in the way, but it's not like saheon isn't an easy read.

he wants to know how the outside world is, well, it's the same but somehow... saheon is not on the same timeline as him? this world could move slower. ]

If you need a timeline, it's the end of the year for me.

[ us, he should say, but that's not the case. ]

[inverseye]

[ Saheon's face doesn't fall. His expression is straight, controlled, with only the slightest hint of sweat beading at his brow. By his side, one hand taps agaist his leg in an off sotto rhythm.

When he speaks his voice is strained. ]

...I've been here the whole time.

[ Missing a few months he knows, May to August, months he could have been somewhere else. Dreaming between worlds, Saheon assumed, trapped in this many layered Darkness like a speck of dust crushed and compressed by whatever swallowed him up on that mountain. Maybe the spirit he felt summoned to crush Jisan to heel.]

I can't be in two places at once. Are you implying that I'm not the real Baek Saheon?

[roedeer]

[ can saheon hear how the perverse silence enters the room, like a flood, swallowing everything and making the topic uncomfortable. if soleum's thinking over what's said, or not, the employee's gaze follows from the brunette before him all the way to the shards of glass for a brief moment. ]

You.

[ eyes lift back to baek saheon, behind the mask, it's hard to see how he looks him up and down, picking out certain physical reactions he tends to display. first, it's the tapping of his leg that comes from being under duress, the strain in his voice to prove his words are true, or maybe he's worried that's not the case. kim soleum has seen him at his worst, he recalls a minor moment in jisan where his entire person was on edge just being there. his mind then was hazy, he couldn't account for certain quick time events it felt like, but drinking in the sight of the man now compared to then.

he can handle it, he's not like what he was then, and the time sharing the same space together allows for him to utilize that knowledge. he has examined bark saheon up and down for as long as he's known him, because he's scared, because he might do something against him if soleum doesn't catch the signs first.

to imply he's not real, that he's a fake, even kim soleum would laugh at the prospect if not for the position baek saheon is in. there's nothing to gain in making him believe he's a fake. ]

You are Baek Saheon, I will not permit otherwise.

[ kim soleum's judgement, his word is law, a narrative he forces upon the other that is also disappointed that saheon would think anything else.

actually, he's viper! he knows what baek saheon is capable of, what he can do, and he's much like a sand viper who's hiding their true colors underneath the layer of this. ]

You forgot. [ upon entry, it would be the only thing that makes sense. ] Time discrepancies are natural within these types of Darknesses.

[inverseye]

...Permit, sir?

[ Asshole The declaration rankles, as if someone like Kim Soleum had any authority on what Saheon is. He is real, and if there was a doppelganger, he'd kill as many as it took to become the original and sole owner of his identity. He's certainly more real then an inhuman facsimile like Soleum, with his masks and pretend humanity. Saheon has a family, a past, and a whole human future.

The hand by his side clenches and stills. Even so, even so, there is a sick relief to hear it out of that mouth. Kim Soleum never lies, thats a rule he doesn't break. He always knows everything. If he says its true, it almost certainly is. ]

So we were together, we both fell into Darkness, and I lost my memories of the past year.

[ Is that how it is... ]

I guess your secret project didn't pan out. [ Just because he doesn't remember it, doesn't mean he isn't owed his backpay! ]

[roedeer]

No one else has that right to be you.

[ a hand comes to his mask to press at the sides, adjusting it some, and he can only imagine what is going through saheon's mind. to think of himself as a fake, it doesn't mean anything good in the long run, but he's so attached to the idea of living, surviving, that he wouldn't allow himself to be a fake.

keep him calm, feed into what kim soleum knows of baek saheon, and nothing is a lie because he believes the darkness here has adjusted a few things. ]

I'm here, but that doesn't mean the project failed.

[ director ho's project, but it was still someone kim soleum was taking advantage of in hopes to understand himself. even now, his body, this human one appears instead of 130666's, and that in itself says a lot.

he holds his hand out now in the direction of saheon. ]

You are part of it, and the director can't move without us. He'll have to bring us back to our bodies.

[ though, as soleum thinks about it, withdrawing his hand an inch because what if that's not the same. ]

Unless you don't want to be part of my team, then I can't promise the director would bring you out. Detriments and all.

[ you know how it is. ]

[inverseye]

[ He's so used to hearing that things are fake, the world is fake and wrong, people are fake and wrong, so many wasted hours of his time. Who cares. He's got eyes and ears and blood that pumps and when he dies he'll be dead. Dead and gone! Like a real thing!

So he's real! He'll be real.

If you tell him this world is fake, he'll find a way into yours, Kim Soleum! ]

The director recruited me?

[ He was hoping to stay out of the factions struggle until he had more items, more soft power, and at least a few reliable coworkers but thats not bad at this stage. He just got promoted. ]

....Are you phrasing orders as rhetorical questions, sir? [ He'll be in it! He'll be in it, he's not stupid, ok! Just let him join what he already agreed to but can't remember! ] If we were already working together, I'm more interested in the specifics of our previous agreements.

[ As he recalled, he was passing you a whole lot of info and hadn't gotten a scent of an item back... ]

[roedeer]

[ he's real as long as soleum thinks so, he's a real character in the real hit series of dark exploration records. that's as real as baek saheon can get, his reality is what the broken glass lingering on the floor shows on the front side with a man named viper. ]

By my nomination, yes.

[ there's no reason to lie to him, why would saheon have any use if it's not one for soleum? his knowing smile pulls onto his face, and he has a feeling that such a glow up works in saheon's favor; he can thank soleum anytime. ]

Good. It's nice to have you on the team, again.

[ those? well, he's already starting to walk while stuffing his hands into his pockets, and the light of the cathedral bounces off his body while traverses. he doesn't leave saheon behind, stopping every so often to make sure that he catches up. ]

Hm. You are missing a nice chunk of your memory. My debt is paid unless you find any discrepancies in the future.

[ clean slate, wonderful for soleum, hate and hell for baek saheon. ]

How is your eye?

[inverseye]

[ ughhhh killing everyone on earth is BACK on the table. we will blow this whole dream up to get ITEM.

But he still follows in Soleum's heels, the normal pattern achieved once again. repetition on the theme has proved its good for saheons life expectancy.]

Let's not be unreasonable!! We're teammates, right? Its beneficial if we start off with some mutual goodwill.

[ Saheon hesitates, weighing his options. In truth, while it has its normal function in his dream body, the thing stopped working the second he woke up in Sleep's Manhatten. The normal auras of danger bleed away, turning into nonsense colors that spoil his vision like an oil slick on a puddle. Without it's danger sensing ability, this equipment isn't even a usable prosthetic. It just...sits in his head...turning the world into a funhouse kaleidoscope whenever he needs to give himself a headache.

He might as well remove it. It's just. It's unpleasant. He doesn't like things near his left eye. ]

It's working right now.

[ Properly evasive! ]

[roedeer]

[ KNOB WHEN YOU DON'T GIVE HER A TREAT. ]

Right now means... it wasn't working before?

[ properly evasive or word play that kim soleum has to dig into? he knows baek saheon, he knows the man like the back of his hand. he's groomed every part of his wikipedia entry for days, he knows the steps that turns him into viper, he knows that baek saheon could be the most cunning of the cunning. ]

It's beneficial and I expect you not to lie, we must build off good will.

[ kim soleum turns, he closes the distance between him and baek saheon to scrutinize the eyepatch. it's not his place to flip it up, but there's no one here as soleum's gaze drifts from one eye to the other, the red dots locking onto their target waiting to fire if saheon makes one wrong move. ]

We should be in an Abyss-grade Darkness. What you know is important to the progress of the director getting us out.

[ he's heard quite a good bit already, but saheon's nosey, he gets into things like a rat. ]

[inverseye]

[ It's scary. It's scary that Soleum always seems to read his name. One might ask why Saheon even bothers, when insanity is doing the same thing ad nuaseum, but he never seems to learn.

Being around Soleum makes him insane! ]

It's working right now, that's what matters right?

[ He forces himself to stand a little closer, even if those red eyes threaten to take up the remaining vision he has left. H-hey. He didn't really lie, so there's no goodwill lost. It's not a big deal... ]

There's no reason it should threaten my usefulness to the team! I just didn't want to worry Supervisor Roe Deer with my own concerns.

[ Don't take away his ticket out of here. He'll regurgitate all sort of corporate praise, right down to the manual from HR on proper employee relations! ]

You were the one who bought this, so if it acts up now and again, shouldn't you know more!? Nothing here looks Abyss grade to me!

[roedeer]

Ha. Thank you, as long as you know how much I care.

[ he needs saheon regardless, a vital piece in his plans to return home. it's really hard to let him go, no matter how unpredictable and paranoid the other is, kim soleum sees use. he's better off listening to him and doing nothing else.

as he inches closer, soleum follows the same routine too, he walks forward to encourage sahaon to move back. guiding him, a human shepherding his sheep to where they belong, he doesn't stop until he has saheon's back against the stained glass. the surface fragile against his weight, shuddering almost, but it won't give underneath them. ]

Then it's time for a routine inspection, don't you think?

[ it does bother him to know that something he paid a lot may be having issues. no matter the darkness, it should work just fine, even in an abyss— it should work, that's what saheon was useful for.

chest to chest, one hand flat against the glass, and his other lifts to wedge his index finger underneath saheon's mask. with a little encouragement, he should be able to get him to do this much. nothing different from what they've done before. ]

Show me.

[inverseye]

[ Useful as what? Stress relief!?

The back against his back feels ice cold. Boxed in from every angle, maybe he could shove Soleum and run, but he'd be no closer to getting out then before.

So he has to bring his hands up, even if his supervisor has left him so little space, the bony edges of his arms are touching Kim Soleum's chest. ]

Since when did it need something like that...

[ But the venom is running dry, replaced by the pleading, almost genuine way Saheon talks when he repeatedly doesn't get his way.

And he's unlikely to be getting it anytime soon. So at least, he doesn't want to give up this bit of control, either. Saheon's own hand sneaks up to grab Soleum's holding it still while he first tips back the mask, and then slowly pulls down the eyepatch covering his eye.

The auras bloom instantly, or they should, if Soleum's own did not drown out everything. Red upon red, branching, connecting, a many pointed crown, a halo. Not just the vision of danger, but the eminence of it, an integral part of its being so powerful, it might make someone sick to look at. Here, the reason to keep an eye like this covered. It's looking at the impossible. This aura shouldn't, couldn't, can't be part of a human being!

But from the outside, it looks exactly how Soleum should remember it, a black orb with a purple iris that, when in a human skull, dilates and skitters like any human eye would. ]

[roedeer]

...

[ out of anything saheon says, he could at least be honest about the dangers that he sees. his eye can see it coming from a distance, he's able to catch signs that he and other's cant. despite how close soleum is, there's nothing out of the ordinary with the eye, and he even lifts his hand closer to the organ to gently touch it with the tip of his finger. ]

It looks to be working properly.

[ if the glass could catch this unity of their bodies, the creature would have wrapped around viper in a tight embrace. the umbrella of this fragmented halo would cover them both in red, drench them, a world of their very own in that realm of glass. that's what it would do. however, soleum withdraws his hands to let it rest on saheon's hand that's holding up his surgical mask. ]

Whenever you have trouble with it, show it to me immediately.

[ if there's any changes then from this perspective, he should be able to tell. ]

This place shows no immediate dangers, none that you would class as an Abyss?

[ he's yet to move away, instead, he'll watch to see what saheon's reaction is. ]

[inverseye]

[ To his normal eye, its just a finger but to the alien other stuck in his skull it might as well be a brand, radiating an obscene discomforting feeling. It touches the lid of that eye, causing an involuntary twitch that shudders through Saheons entire body before moving across the retina, cornea, and that neon iris. Saheon swears it feels like the thing sparks - but Soleum pulls his hand away.

They're still so close, Saheon's face is drenched in swear, and the hand resting against Soleum's hums with a faintly concealed trumble. He bobs his head up and down in a nod. Whenever he has trouble with it... that will be the second he wakes up. Maybe then Soleum will fix it.

With a remarkably steady voice he manages: ]

I've never seen an Abyss class aura before, sir. So... I wouldn't be able to say with total certainty.

[ Not a lie. There is no telling if Soleum's aura is Abyss. It could be a lower, more reasonable grade. It could mean there was something wrong with the eye from the start. It's not worth investigating, not right now! ]

But if I had to guess, there's no immediate danger to your person.

[roedeer]

...

[ and soleum takes a step back, finally unwedging himself against saheon from his personal space. soleum fixes both his tie and the front of his suit like someone whose gotten themselves dirty and has to get rid of the mess.

a sigh. ]

You are missing those parts of your memory.

[ that's why he can't be too mad at saheon, no matter the grade, he should be able to catch the aura and give a good idea of what they're dealing with. this place has no immediate dangers, and...

well, he wants to test something, and that's why he's reaching to peel saheon off the stained glass, then places his hand on the small of the man's back. he guides him forward, then with two pats. ]

There's a forest outside this place. I would like you to check it for me.

[ and with a smile. ]

Let's go together. You can tell me of your time in Manhattan.

[ yes, saheon, he knows that too. ]

[inverseye]

[ The second he's able, the eyepatch is replaced, and Kim Soleum goes back to looking...like a monster, but also like the slimy salaryman Saheon expects.

It would be a relief, but he's immediately off balance again as Soleum starts pushing! Ugh, this fucking bastard! He knows how to walk without being dragged around! He slaps Soleum's hand away as best as he's able, with the odd angle. ]

You better tell the Director how helpful I was.

[ Helpful enough to get his own Wish Ticket, please and thank you. And, since Soleum already seems to know everything, he launches into a simple: ]

Just been staying alive.

[ Espera, Sleep, One, the twisted up nonsense of Manhatten, it's not a secret Saheon is interesting in uncovering. Is his desire to get back home that strong? No. He's been alive here, and he was alive there, so its all about the same. Soleum can worry on this bone for him. ]

Most of the people who wake up there are the self sacrificial type, so you should have fun. Lots of teenagers, but no kids. And I guess the Darkness warps our pasts, or alternate futures and universes are all confirmed now.

[roedeer]

[ he raises his hand, and what appears like he's going to grab the horn of saheon's mask to drag him forward, is instead placed on top of his head. no different from him patting a dog, his fingers scratch at the scalp for better emphasis through brown, curly hair.

what a pain. ]

I'll put in a good word, and tell him to look into you for future projects. That means more opportunities for better items.

[ he'd probably get out of dodge before allowing director ho to put him through the hell that soleum is going through now willingly. he withdraws his hand, arm coming down to his side, and the employee thinks through saheon's words. ]

Is that how you've been staying alive, sacrificing people?

[ there's a bit of disappointment in soleum's tone, it comes across like he's going to scold the other for being disobedient, especially after just praising him moment ago. this can't be real, the amount of people who have already died in sekwang is enough, and now saheon is adding to the body count.

he would do something like that, he would! a terrible character that never has a real reason to justify his actions, why does he have to be so... calm down, soleum, don't jump the gun.

he'll lie and say he hasn't sacrificed anyone. at least he can have some semblance of peace that way. ]

[inverseye]

[ His shoulders come up at the touch, but he keeps his single eye fixed ahead, not giving Soleum the satisfaction of any other reaction. ]

Why are you asking a question like that?

[ Sacrificing people is an inherent part of staying alive. It's something Soleum should obviously understand, even with all his thrill seeking. He's the top performer at a job that chews people up and spits them out without even a consideration to their names. Why does Saheon need to lie about something Soleum does all the time?

If Saheon hasn't directly killed anyone here yet, its not because he had any objection to the idea. Of course he would do something like that! It's just that the danger level of this Darkness, despite it's risk of contamination, hasn't been high enough to require anything so drastic. ]

[roedeer]

[ did he not like that question? then again, this is the viper-in-the-making, he'd probably throw a fit if he couldn't kill people. look at him, he probably wants to sacrifice someone now with that unhinged desire of his. soleum manages to keep himself from having a shiver roll down his spine, luckily he's already placed himself in a position that saheon would regret if he chose him as a victim. ]

If you've been showing your ass, it gives us little to work with when using others.

[ he points to their clothes, same attire, even with the name card hanging from the lanyard. ]

Plan strategically, we have to take advantage of what's available to us.

[ power and control is all that matters to saheon anyway. soleum pauses as he looks to the other then with a click of his tongue. ]

What works in your favor that you've found reliable?