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]

What a fatal combination. His lips on her skin, his words, and his eyes on hers, all perfectly coming together to make her feel like she could truly melt into his touch. She has to remind herself of what she'd said only moments ago. There was a time and place and it was not here. He made it tempting, though. "You tell all the people you just met you want to cherish them, handsome?" He was joking even though she thought it wasn't completely one. That this attraction couldn't be completely one-sided. But even if it was, she liked his company. They could move between such light and heavy conversations so easily. "It's all I've known. Really known, anyway." Mary's memories were not her own. And Vander had had a life before it was taken from him. "Your cloud must be a lot, too."

But then they were joking again and she could only smile. "If there's a will then there's a way and I bet you're a man that doesn't back away from a challenge. Besides, it'd be easy with these hands." She squeezed his hand in hers with a coy smile and she did have to admit, the size of his hand felt nice wrapped around hers.

He comes across as a natural as he tries to gain the approval of these horse-like creatures. "And here I was hoping to win them over with a song and dance number," she jokes but she does as he says. Her head is down and she does open up one hand to show...well, she doesn't know. You do it with dogs and cats, she thinks. Let them sniff you. One does reach forward to smell her hand before nudging it away and going back to feeding. "Geesh not a fan."

[cantilevers]

"Just the lucky ones," he replied charmingly, aware of the effect that he had on her in that moment. He still had it, apparently. He hadn't been in the game for what felt like a long time, so it was nice to know that he could sweep someone he fancied off of their feet. He knew that they were attracted to each other, that this was more than fleeting teasing between two people who knew how to maneuver through these types of conversations. "That's unfortunate. You deserve better," he remarked. Many people deserved better, but he couldn't entirely imagine the scars of dying over and over. "Maybe our clouds are the same size."

He thought that she read him well, yet he felt disquieted by the handful of years he was a protective voice that did not stray out of his own comfort zone. It was shameful now to look back and realize how much losing Felicia and turning on Silco had broken the last of who he had been as a revolutionary. Maria didn't know, of course. "Some challenges are even bigger than these hands to handle," he said, trying to still sound teasing and coming up short. "But you make me want to do my best again, which is strange as we've only just met."

He chuckled at her joke about song and dance, and well, neither had instruments to make that work. "Well, I'm tall enough to make a good pole if you want to give a go to impress them." He watched her, amused that both of them were lost on what to do and yet still trying their best regardless. He leaned down to pick some of the foliage that they appeared to be grazing on and offered it once Maria was seemingly rejected. "Tough crowd, right?"

[heavensnight]

"I'd say I usually have rotten luck but seems it's changed today," she says, her blue eyes looking over his face and features, taking him in. It had never been this easy with James. Any moment of attraction he'd had for her would be so quickly stomped down, replaced with barely there toleration. It was nice to know someone could want her. Really want her. "Maybe our clouds can join forces, be a little less lonely." She gazes at his lips for a brief second and then she smiles.

He'd tried to keep up teasing but whatever thought was on his mind, it didn't seem to make it possible for him to do so. Maria takes his hand in hers and much like he'd done before to her, she kissed his knuckles. "Then if these get all bloodied up I'll give them a kiss to make it all better. Not the magic cure-all but it can help sometimes." If he'd try for her then she'd try for him. "Since it seems like we might be making a good team and all."

The Nightmares look to the offered hand and one of them goes to Vander, still eyeing him warily. "Looks like you might have a fan, though."

[cantilevers]

"Let's consider this a new start for both of us in terms of luck, yeah? We seem to work well together." It was more than that, of course. They clearly wanted to be around each other, and it had been a long time since he experienced that sensation with another person to this level. Life seemed to slow down when he was with Maria. "Cloud merging, huh? That sounds almost sexual, you know." Her smile was infectious.

His expression softened when she replied in kind with a similar gesture of what he had provided to her. Her lips felt soft and warm on his skin, drawing him back into this moment before he had a real opportunity to side step it. "Perhaps they will, depending on what we face. I'll hold you to that promise of kissing it all better though. Is the offer limited to my knuckles?" His lips may need healing in the future too.

He tried not to look, figuring they might be like cats and ignoring them for the most part was the best way to attract their attention. His hand remained out, letting the mare sniff or do whatever they wanted. "Maybe they like someone more their size or something." He didn't know. Horses were strange animals.

[heavensnight]

Being with Vander did feel like a new start and that still didn't seem right. Should it be this easy? Should it be this easy when the man she was made for hadn't even wanted her? Her purpose hadn't been for good but it had still been for him. And he'd wanted none of it. But Vander met her halfway, met her own forward comments with his own. Not once had he backed down. Their attraction to each other was real. "Maybe we work well together in a lot of ways. Guess we'll see how we fit," she says with a smirk—another almost sexual comment.

The way he looked at her, Maria thought he needed the comfort. The companionship. Maybe that's all this was, two lonely people looking for that. Maria didn't think she minded at all. "My lips can go anywhere you need them. I can, too." A moment of vulnerability there for all the sexual innuendo they'd been passing along. A real relationship, platonic or not, seemed to be what they both needed.

"Or they like you. Don't animals have some sense of knowing good people or something?" Maria could never call herself an animal person. Or at least she couldn't recall. There were memories of Mary wanting a bird and that was about it. Maria didn't even know if she had a favorite animal. She glances at these horse-like creatures and decides she probably isn't a horse girl. "Take the compliment, handsome."

[cantilevers]

Vander smirked, amused with her continued innuendos. As she had made clear, this wasn't the time or the place for anything above simple physical affection, but he was interested. She made enjoying her company easy and fresh, lifting the cloud of confusion and loneliness that picked at him. She made him feel better, and he was happy for her continued company and sexual sense of humor. "Maybe a tight squeeze," he remarked airily as if he were talking about the weather.

He huffed, holding in a laugh at her declaration and offer. "You're a lady with many offers and many talents. You're raising the bar for first meetings in a strange foreign place," he remarked as he used his thumb to stroke her hand affectionately. This was going to be a fun friendship as he had no doubt that they would be friends; he'd basically consider her one now.

"Maybe they do. I am very likeable. So are you, so it should be equal opportunity," he reflected and his fingers lifted slowly so he could lightly scritch at the lower lip of the nightmare still sniffing his hand. The contact was accepted and the mare began to sniff up his arm. "Looks like I'm just attracting all the ladies today."

[heavensnight]

"Big guy like you?" Her eyes looked him up and down, clearly checking him out. "Yeah, tight squeeze. Real tight." If they were not in this situation then they would probably be doing more than just implying. Which was a novel thought. She'd tried so hard to appeal to James and it was so effortless with Vander. It was nice. Even if all they could ever do was talk, she thought she'd cherish this moment.

And maybe she was eager to please. It was part of who she was. What she was. But she was with someone who wasn't going to turn her down. Someone who could at least appreciate it. "I like to be a friendly face, what can I say?"

Vander had higher hopes than she did. Maria felt like they must know she wasn't really real. Not something at all. She simply smiled at Vander getting along with the horse-like creature until she felt one nudging at her arm and she was surprised. Frozen for a second because she didn't have any idea what to do. "The shark has been forgotten."

[cantilevers]

A slow flush crept up the back of his neck at her obvious play, and he shifted his footing where he was standing. "Don't worry, I'm good at making things fit," he said, sounding confident and knowing she would probably want him regardless. It was amazing they were just holding hands and nothing else, though her drawing back suddenly after being in his lap was a reminder.

Not the time, not the place. Unless becoming close to someone was the point? Could that be how and why they had found each other? She was a friendly face as she claimed, and he liked to think that he was as well. "I appreciate it. It's been such a pleasure to meet you in this strange situation we find ourselves in."

Slowly, he used his grip on her hand to pull her closer to him, sliding his hand free of hers so he could curl his arm around her waist and draw her in front of him. He rested his chin on the top of her head and withdrew from touching the nightmare until he could cup to back of Maria's hand and drew both of their hands up towards the horse again. The mare stared, ears flicking, uncertain but also not moving away at the moment. "We go together or not at all, alright?"

[heavensnight]

The temptation do more than just hold hands was there and it had been there since the moment they'd both started flirting. She, too, remembered being in his lap. How close they'd been, how right it had felt. She thought they could fit well together. Physically and otherwise. While she didn't want to jump to anything too serious (that would just end up in heartbreak), it was obvious they got along. The chemistry was there.

And she considered removing her hand. Not because she didn't want to touch him, or maintain it, but because she didn't think she could keep thinking straight. Not when he spoke so sweetly to her or felt like such a welcomed change from what she knew.

Her mouth opens to tell him she felt the same when he pulled her close to him. For once, there were no flirty words that were quickly coming to her mind. Only a rising heat and it felt like her brain stuttered for a moment as the nightmare watched them, nudging their hands as if accepting the joined effort. "Hard to think of anything witty when you're so close, you know," she teases and moves her head so he's forced to be looking down at her as she looks up at him. Her eyes wander over his lips then meet his eyes. "But might be hard to lose me now."

[cantilevers]

Vander did not deny that she slotted in well against his body, her slim but muscular body hidden under the shadow of his own larger form. He should behave himself, and he didn't mentally think this was escalating things too far either. If the nightmare liked him, he wanted to make the effort so that she was included, that they had equal chance to potentially befriending one and being lead out of here.

It was clear that he caught her off guard with his antics too, which was something that he also appreciated. She was a lady that was easily rolled with each situation with a witty charm and flirty attitude. Not this time apparently. His arm slid further around her front to hold her when it was apparent that he didn't make her too uncomfortable, holding her close.

His smile was on his lips as the nightmare nudged both of their hands, and he returned to tickling its chin as its too wide lips mouthed a bit at them. "Oh, am I that distracting to you when I hold you closer to me?" He tipped his head off of resting on hers and peered at her, corner of his lips tugging again. "Might be part of my cunning plan. Would you allow me the opportunity to kiss you, Maria?"

[heavensnight]

Maria found it hard to think around Vander. At least think logically. With James, it always felt like she was up on some stage with him. Her mind thought of lines to say, ways to act, and how to keep him near. There was a craving for him there, Mary's love for him alive in her, but for Maria it just wasn't James plaguing her thoughts.

But with Vander right now, it was certainly him in her mind. Wondering how he felt, how he might kiss her, how he could touch her and make her feel good in a way that she never did before. It seemed possible with him and even if this wasn't real (if it could be so cruel), she would be happy to play pretend just for this moment.

And maybe this isn't the best use of their time in this situation but screw it. Why should she care? Not when Vander asks her that and she doesn't answer him with words. No, she only turns just enough so she can answer him by kissing him. Her plan is it to be soft and teasing before she says something but the moment she feels his lips on hers it's a lost cause. A sigh escapes her and then she's turning around, both arms wrapping around him so she can pull him down to kiss him at a better leverage.

[cantilevers]

If he thought about this long enough, he could also convince himself that this was partially the purpose of them being brought together. Why else would he and Maria be thrown together and have such chemistry to form an immediate friendship? And now they were apparently to befriend nightmares when neither of them had any particular knowledge on how that could be done, yet here they were doing so.

He dropped the hold on her hand as she turned to face him, loosening the grip of his arm so he could turn without hinderance. He felt his heart rate pick up, anticipation welling in his belly as he regarded her bright eyes and pretty face. He knew he hadn't overstepped, not with the look she was giving him.

He dropped his head as she leaned up, their lips meeting soft and teasing to start. The hand he had been offering to the horse rose to cup the side of her face as he hunched his shoulders as he felt her arms around his and knew this would be intense. He deepened the kiss with pressure of his lips first then parting them to allow the tip of his tongue to trace her upper lip. He hummed in pleasure at the connection, watching her face and expression to make certain he wasn't pushing too far too fast.]

[heavensnight]

One of them was thinking and it sure wasn't Maria. Not at this point. She had been trying to think, tried to be logical and responsible because she had to be in Silent Hill. Maybe this was partly because she was tired of that. It was nice to simply exist and have her own cravings mirrored back. Someone could want her as much as she wanted them and Maria liked that.

And it was obvious he was feeling the same as her.

Maria's eyes had closed as Vander kissed her back and all she could focus on was the feeling of him against her. It was easy, too easy, to open her mouth and meet Vander's tongue with her own. And Maria wasn't interested in playing this slow. When was the last time she'd ever truly been kissed? Not in recent memory...hers or Mary's, really. Maria very quickly tilts her head and kisses him as if she's starving for his attention, his touch, his everything. Partly like she's trying to control him but also partly like she's trying to urge him to kiss her just the same.

[cantilevers]

Not the time, not the place they had said, and yet here they were anyway. He didn't mind in the least, letting go of all concerns he had that they needed to progress forward. He could lose that twinge of sadness and discomfort of loneliness that both of them seemed to experience as an undercurrent to their lives.

So he kissed her without holding back and without reservation. Her lips felt nice against his own, and it was clear she had skill even if she allowed him to take the lead on their first embrace like this. His thumb stroked her cheek and his little finger down her neck, affectionate and wanting to knit the sensations together as his tongue moved without hurry or demand.

She met him as he suspected that she would, and she kissed like a woman desperate to feel and experience and be cared for, to just enjoy everything this had to offer. He pressed his tongue into her mouth, sliding his tongue against her as he sought permission to taste her, to take things further now that the old guard rails were off. He rumbled a sound of pleasure at her, teasing her tongue and teeth with his own.]

[heavensnight]

Not the time or place they had said but Maria would argue it was about sex. And they weren't doing that...though if the timing was better, if there wasn't so much happening, then Maria was sure she would have tried her hand again. Probably wouldn't have had to fight all that hard for it if their flirting and this kiss was saying anything.

Her hands went up to his face to hold it before she leaned up, one hand going up to the back of his head. She allowed him the moment to taste her, to let them both enjoy that (and the pleasured groan made it obvious she did) before she was pushing back to seek control. Pushing his tongue back so hers could lead the dance and movements.

Maria did kiss like a woman that knew what she wanted and when she grabbed his hand and attempted to put it on her breast, it only made it more clear what she craved from him.

[cantilevers]

He leaned his face into her touch, which allowed him to further press their lips together harder, and he did indeed taste and tease her. The moan that she issued was encouragement, and he stepped in to press their bodies more firmly together. His lips curved into a smile when she began to push back, to seek out control from him to manage their kiss to her wishes.

Vander felt no advantage to denying her control. His tongue withdrew with a final flick to her upper lip and allowed her into his own mouth in return if she so wished. In his own territory as it were, he pushed back, teasing and attempting to flick and wrestle her tongue as he rumbled his pleasure at her.

As she grabbed his hand, he sensed where she wanted it from experience. He did as urged, his hand closing around one breast and massaging it with palm first then fingers, not too hard of course.

[heavensnight]

It was too bad they were not closer to a wall or some other viable surface. Though perhaps that would have only resulted in them going too far. As if this impromptu make-out session wasn't far enough. As if her pushing him to touch her wasn't too far. But it had been such a long time that she could enjoy anything. That she could be kissed by someone who really seemed to want it.

And she knew he wanted it, even when she tried to take control. Vander seemed to like that just as well (or he let his partner have their way when he knew it would get him what he wanted just as much, either or) and Maria let her tongue lead the dance and move against his. She shuddered at his touch and tried to remember why they shouldn't just fall onto the ground. Shouldn't just have their way and give into a nice moment where they could forget whatever bullshit they had to keep facing.

When the kiss did have to end, she bit his lip teasingly and opened her eyes in hopes of meeting his. Her lips were still close to his, though.