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

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

"I don't know what you're talking about. Who?" Justin kneels in an effort to make eye contact. "What wouldn't they finish?"

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"The people I hurt the most. They were supposed to kill me. But they- they just left me here." He almost sounds betrayed at that. The plan made so much sense, and there was no point to them being so noble.

"I can't do it myself. I doubt I could get the knife deep enough." That wasn't the really reason, which might be obvious. But he'd confessed as much as he could right now.

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

"They must have had a reason to leave you," Justin says reasonably. He isn't noble, but he doesn't think he can handle killing someone else, even in a nightmare. There also seems to be some hesitance on Sylar's part--some reluctance to die.

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Sylar shakes his head, at a loss. "I didn't go far enough..." he guesses. "They saw what I wanted, maybe."

He closes his eyes for a long moment, then looks up at Justin. "You're not going to help me either, are you?"

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

Justin thinks about his answer long and hard before replying. This Sylar is almost frightening in his despair. "Not unless you give me a decent reason to."

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Well, that was easy enough. "I'm going to kill a lot of people," he says, sounding desperate. "I can't go back home. I'm a different person there. Please..." At least if he killed people here, they'd come back.

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

"You do realize that, even if I kill you here, you'll still go home," Justin replies pragmatically. Of course Sylar doesn't realize that. This is real to him; this is more than a nightmare. He's operating under the City's logic. Die there, never go home.

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Sylar swallows and looks up to him. Justin's not going to do it either. He'll just have to wait like usual and some day everything will go to hell again, and he'll just repeat the cycle over and over. "I know there's a chance. But it's much less. I can't- if I can't control the clock, this is the best I can do." He closes his eyes. "And it's never enough."

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

Justin hasn't discarded the knife altogether. Perhaps Sylar's meant to die in this dream. Maybe he won't be allowed to leave the nightmare until he does what Sylar asks, or maybe this scenario will have repercussions in reality. "What do you mean, control the clock? I don't follow."

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Sylar opens his eyes and stares at Justin for a moment.

"The mechanism at the heart of this City," he eventually explains. "But we can't get to it. It's always out of reach. We're at the mercy of the deities, but I can't accept that." His voice wavers. "I have to take control."

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

"Is that the ticking here? The clock?" Justin shakes his head. "If you can't control your nightmares, I doubt you can control the deities."

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"No," he answers. "That's me."

The talk about control really doesn't sit well, though. Sylar scowls, rising to his feet. He towers over Justin, just staring down at him for awhile. "I can't control any of it. But if I die, I'll have a better chance of staying here. And if that is all I can manage, then that's what I'll take."

His expression is tired, numb, but he still stares at Justin with a peculiar sort of intensity. "Give me the knife."

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

Justin has, at times, wondered if Sylar was entirely sane. He thinks he has his answer. Dream or not, these are not the words and actions of a sane individual.

No," Justin replies, staying on his knees. He might not look frightened, but there's something dangerous about Sylar. That kind of dangerous doesn't need a knife. "If you want me to kill you here, I will. It won't help, though. This isn't real."

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Sylar could have told him that ages ago. Of course, it's never a good idea to question the insane as to their sanity, so he wouldn't exactly blame Justin for keeping quiet on the subject.

The resolve in his eyes falters as Justin tells him this isn't real. He glances away, sighs. "That's what you meant about the nightmares. So I can't change anything."

He balls up a fist, and a nearby garbage can crumples in on itself with a loud bang. It then hurls itself against the end of the alley, crashing into the brick wall. Sylar is shaking with rage for a few moments, then he turns to walk toward the street. "No different than anywhere else, then."

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

"You can't change anything here." Not that Justin advocates suicide in the City, but if one's going to kill oneself, one should do it where it counts.

He flinches at the metallic bang. If Sylar can do that to a garbage can, he hardly needs a knife to be a threat. Justin follows him hesitantly. "Where're you going?"

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

"I don't know." It's a phrase Sylar hates to say, but it comes all too easily here. "Some place to think. Doesn't really matter, does it? If you're here, this is a curse. We have to wait it out."

He frowns and turns back, looking at Justin. "If this is a nightmare, it might be safer if we tried to wait it out separately." There's something else he doesn't really want to say, but he knows what will happen if he tries to keep any sort of company here. Justin has seen too much as it is, no need for him to experience worse.

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

Justin watches Sylar's face, trying to discern the words that the man isn't voicing. "Do you murder people in your nightmares?"

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

He smiles at Justin, and it's somehow both playful and desperately sad. "Only when I don't want to."

He shrugs, rolling his shoulders a little. His stance is completely different now, relaxed but ready to move at a moment's notice. It's a predator's body language. "I murder people quite frequently in my dreams, since I can't in reality. You are a low risk..." He raises an eyebrow at Justin. "But do you really want to take that chance?"

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

"You exorcise your psychological demons in dreams," Justin replies, apparently interested in the concept. He pushes his hair back nervously. "I would rather not, no. Can you tell me how to leave?"

[makes-you-tick.livejournal.com]

Sylar's smile becomes a little more genuine at Justin's observation. It's a good assessment.

The question, however, is a difficult one to answer. He takes a moment of contemplation before he answers. "...walk away. But don't run. And don't look back. That's my best guess." Of course, dream logic is highly unreliable, but since this is a nightmare, it should let Justin go.

[absinthe-eyed.livejournal.com]

Justin hopes that he'll remember this when they're awake. While he is interested in Sylar's methods of controlling what seems to be an innate need to kill, part of him wants to confide in another killer. Reformed murderer solidarity.

He nods, places the knife on the ground--what Sylar does with it in his nightmare is his business now--and begins to walk away, eyes focused straight ahead. As Sylar predicted, it works; Justin steps out of one nightmare and into another.