dreaming;;;

[makes_you_tick]

This is the City, but you're not where you had been. You're now standing somewhere in between the Buildings 10 and 11, and the City itself seems utterly empty.

There's a lack of light, as well. The odd street lamp blinks on and off in the distance, but it's not something your eyes can count on. As a result, everything is grey and black.

The ticking is louder here. No longer just inside your head, it echoes through the streets. It permeates everything, sending the occasional thought into sharp focus.

Down one road, there's something wet. A close-by lamp blinks on for a moment, and that spot shines red.

[ooc: I may be a little slow, but I'm definitely backtagging this weekend. :3 My favorite curse is here! Feel free to have anyone wander in. This is...mostly a normal dream for Sylar, since pretty much all of them are nightmares. Be aware that it could get awfully gory and dark from here on out.]

Comments

trapped between two lungs ][

[the-alice.livejournal.com]

The talent of recognizing a dream for exactly that lost to her since discovering he one dream was always a truth, Alice does not know what to make of this, but she reminds herself that it isn't worthwhile to panic when nothing actually bad has happened.

Modest boot heels click with an unnatural loudness against the street, outdone only by the ticking that she grits her teeth and nerve against.

Surely this is a curse. Best not to let fear get the best of her ahead of time. But she folds her arms tightly across her chest, hands tucked into the crooks, her light blue dress as immaculate as it was upon arriving at that her engagement party what seems ages ago.

"Nothing to fear," she insists to herself softly, and treads onward with a quiet care, focusing on that stubbornness when the ticking escalates and blows everything out of focus, hanging onto it until it comes down again.

trapped between two lungs ][

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"Nothing, really?" replies Sylar, who is standing directly behind her. His arms are crossed and there's a smirk on his face. Despite the way his eyes shine in the light, however, they seem utterly blank. "Do you really believe that, or are you hoping that saying it makes it true?"

trapped between two lungs ][

[the-alice.livejournal.com]

"Just saying something doesn't make it true, whatever it is," she replies carefully, her generally soft tone not faltering as she turns in order to match a face to the voice inquiring.

trapped between two lungs ][

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"Then you're terribly naive. That's all there is here," he says, looking ahead. "It gets old, after awhile. But you have years yet." He smiles, finally looking back to her.

It's then that he gets a good look at her, and what he sees makes him frown. "What's special about you?" he murmurs, looking distracted. He almost sounds worried. "Why are you here?"

trapped between two lungs ][

[the-alice.livejournal.com]

"Think what you want to. It's what I believe," she frowns, tilting her head at him at about the same time that his frown appears as well. In the dark it seems like only half of an expression. That question is strangest of all though.

"Special? What do you mean by that?" It could mean many things, after all.

trapped between two lungs ][

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"There's something to you. I can't tell," he says, frowning. "It never works as well as I'd like."

He continues walking and closes his eyes for a moment. "This isn't a place for people who've conquered their phobias. How do you handle being alone?"

trapped between two lungs ][

[the-alice.livejournal.com]

The frown from before mutes into something more neutral, the eyes giving a little bit more away than the mouth or her posture.

"I suppose," to the first, and "What never works?" to the second. She doesn't wait for an answer this time though, walking so that she is beside him, perhaps a half step behind. "Alone? But I'm not alone. Not usually, I mean." Shaking her head, she sighs, mouth quirking to the side now, lips pressing thin. "But if this is a place of fear...what is it you're afraid of?"

She isn't sure that's what he means, but she can't read minds either. Special? It may be special in her case that she now knows what she wants, that even in her own time she has decided to commit herself fully to those wants. Some people never make such a decision, could reach a hundred years and still be without any sort of purpose.

But that doesn't feel like the right answer here.

All around herself she feels an almost nonexistent crackling in the air, closest to her hand, but she thinks nothing of it at the moment. If it is meant to be more than that it will be, and if not, then...not.

trapped between two lungs ][

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

He stares at her for a moment longer, sure he could tell what she was if he just stared at her long enough. But the answer doesn't present itself, so he looks up at the blackness that was meant to represent the sky.

"The tick," he says. He raises an eyebrow at her. "You can hear it, can't you? It tells you things, but never enough. And it won't stop, and it won't let you stop. You'll be alone soon enough."

He heaves a deep sigh and shakes his head. "Do you know where we're going?"