Evening of the First Night--- for heirtothearcane and westfallcorndog

[juststeverogers]

Steve is much more careful in the way he eats than Harrow was, mostly because Viatorus' clothes are very nice and he doesn't want to make a mess of them. The soup is as good as it smelled, and Steve is glad Harrow liked it. Having working taste buds again must be weird for him.

When he's finished, he looks between Harrow and Viatorus carefully. They have a point. It has gotten rather late since all of this started. Between the panic and the running around, Steve hadn't really noticed it. But it was already dark when he'd gone to get the udon.

"What would you prefer I do?" He asks Viatorus quietly. "If it were my body, I'd grab a shower and get to bed, but...is that allowed? Would you rather I didn't?" To Harrow, Steve nods.

"You don't get a choice in the matter with all the soup. You need to give my body at least a wash." He's laughing while he talks though, so it's clear Steve isn't upset.

Comments

[westfallcorndog]

Harrow covers his mouth and nose at the smell of the burning herbs and tries very hard not to cough when all the smoke is hovering around his head.

"Nobody there but us chickens," he croaks. Now is not the time to joke, and yet...

[heirtothearcane]

That's good to hear and he forces himself to exhale in relief. "Good. That's good."

He moves to walk around his bedroom waving the stick in circles at each corner before finding an ornamental dish and snuffing the burning sage and leaving it there. "Alright... Alright. I think it's alright."

[juststeverogers]

"So..what was that all about?" Steve's got an eyebrow raised and his shoulders still tensed. He doesn't know what all just happened, and he's still on high alert in case he needs to run or punch out some demons or something.

Steve does not understand magic at all.

[westfallcorndog]

Harrow sighs in relief. At least he's not the only one who's curious.

"Yeah, man. If you're gonna do voodoo on us, you gotta tell us what you're keepin' out. Is it ghosts? You're in a necromancer's body, you know. You could just tell 'em to scram. Demons? Somethin' else? Are you even allowed to talk about it?"

[heirtothearcane]

"It's not voodoo. I don't do voodoo. That's a very specific traditional magic that I've never encountered in person." He's stalling now that he's reluctantly coming to the realisation that he sort of owes them both an explanation for his panicking. With a sigh, he sits on an armrest in a rather ungentlemanly move despite his posture. "Dreamwalking... If you dreamwalk and... and you don't know what you're doing, and you're tired... it can be dangerous. You can meet... entities. Beings. The ward... The ward keeps them out, keeps me- you grounded. It's better not to risk it at all. Not while you're sleeping. That's what the tea is for. No dreams, no dreamwalking. Double lock. Extra protection. Less risk."

[juststeverogers]

"I'm...not sure I understand." Steve nods along with the explanation, but he still looks confused. "Granted, I didn't know what I was doing, and I didn't mean to do it...But how else are you supposed to dream walk if you're not tired? You have to sleep to do it, don't you?"

None of this makes any sense to Steve, but he's beginning to get the feeling they were both incredibly lucky.

"Sorry...I wasn't trying to ignore your warning or anything..."

[westfallcorndog]

Harrow nods seriously, slowly. He understands the notion of magic inviting in darkness. Come to think of it, that's pretty much what created him. And he's no strangers to truly evil entities from other realms. For the others' sakes he remains quiet on the subject. He's willing to accept the answer Viatorus gave them, however vague it was.

"Is it safe for me to drink some of that dreamless sleep tea? I don't really wanna stay up all night, but I don't really wanna have anymore dreams, either."

[heirtothearcane]

"There's a difference between sleeping because you can, and sleeping because you have to. When you sleep because you're exhausted, you don't have as much control... It... It doesn't matter." He stands up and moves to the kitchen. "I'll make you both some tea. Anyone can drink it if they can drink tea."

[juststeverogers]

"I'll have some sure." Steve replies, feeling guilty for everything that's transpired here up until now. "I'm probably not getting back to sleep anytime soon unless this body really craves sleep. I've got too much on my mind."

He supposes he can find a quiet corner and read some more books off of his phone. Electronic readers are pretty neat that way. Though after this fiasco he's certain Viatorus will insist he do his reading in that bed, too. It was comfortable, but...well. No more buts.

That's what got them into this mess.

[westfallcorndog]

Things feel so tense suddenly. Harrow tries to smile for Steve, but he knows it can't be easy. Letting someone down, even if you didn't mean to, can be hard to bounce back from.

"We'll all just stay in together for the night, how 'bout that? No accidents that way. We can just chat. Chill. Drink some tea and sleep, and in the morning... In the morning we'll all be ourselves, or we'll get to see London on Earth, and it'll be good."

[heirtothearcane]

"I have books if you want them. Or things for sketching. Make yourselves comfortable and I'll bring out the tea in a minute." He's going to get them some biscuits out too. Really, it's the least he can do for worrying them like that.