Sleepover before the storm

[attheclocktower]

Characters: [OU] Xion, Excalibur, and whoever comes
Setting: Floor 101
Format: Whatever floats your boat
Summary: It's the night before the infiltration. People are plotting, discussing, and Xion has brought a Dream Eater so those who want to try to get a good night's sleep have a marginally higher chance of doing so. So in short it's a Tower-flavored sleepover. Bring your own pillows.
Warnings: Nothing in the top level. Will try to edit if anything changes but if something comes up in one of your threads make sure to add a warning in the subject line

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[Standard mingle post procedure. Make your top levels. Tag around. Have fun. Or not, this is Animus after all.

Notes will have been passed out and quiet discussion gone around by word of mouth, just saying that several people were spending the night in the hidden floor. Anybody who spoke to Xion would have been told that she's trying to figure out a way everybody can get a good night's sleep. You'll need to supply your own blankets and pillows but... hey, at least if you have trouble sleeping, you'll have company?

Note that any characters who sleep on the Hidden Floor, if they normally suffer from nightmares will likely have notably lessened or absent nightmares (up to your discretion) owing to the Dream Eater that Xion has brought with.]

Comments

[athousandcurses]

[Seeing a child crying, any child, has always instilled a fierce protectiveness in Grainne. When she sees Link crying, she approaches and kneels down beside him. She doesn't even say anything, and does not ask for permission. She just wraps her arms around him and holds him.]

[childhero]

[Link hears her approach, and barely lifts his head out of his knees to see who it is. When she reaches out and hugs him, he doesn't try to pull away, he doesn't stiffen, he just... instinctively leans into her. She is warm, and there, and later he'll feel silly and childish for this, but -- but, he feels... But, this helps. This helps.

It's still a little while before his tears stop, and even after they do, he stays where he is, partly too embarrassed to pull away and partly reluctant to leave this cocoon of safety.

Still. He should... say something. This something:] ... thank you. [Muffled, of course, and a little mumbled, but he wants her to be able to understand it.]

[athousandcurses]

[Grainne's hold tightens slightly in acknowledgement. She's had more than her share of holding her own children when they cried, it is as natural as breathing to her.]

It will be all right... just focus on the good things now. Do not let the bad ones trouble you.

[childhero]

[He nods.] Mm. [He exhales through his nose.

He's... He isn't alone right now. Not like how that dream made him feel.

He takes a deep breath, but it's easier going, sniffles notwithstanding.]

... I keep dreaming that I'm alone, [he confesses quietly.] That I have been alone for a very long time.

[athousandcurses]

I understand. [Grainne lifts her hand to brush it over his hair.]

It's very frightening, isn't it? Thinking of losing the people you love... but would you like to know a secret?

[childhero]

[... if Link is entirely honest, he thinks that he would have accepted Ganondorf as company in that loneliness. But he nods, and looks up at her curiously.]

What?

[athousandcurses]

We carry the people we love around with us in our hearts. If you think of them, you can never be lonely because they are always with you.

[She smiles for him, trying to be encouraging and comforting.]

They are part of who you are now.

[childhero]

... yeah.

[Link thinks of Saria. Of Navi.

Saria will always be... your friend...

... he thinks then, selfishly, briefly, that it doesn't make it sting any less. That it doesn't keep him from loneliness, because it didn't when he was sent back to his time, and no one remembered what he'd done, the bonds they'd made, because they hadn't happened. He remembered, of course he did, and he still cherished those bonds, those friendships, and held them close to him when it was hardest to be standing with someone who thought they were strangers, but... Sometimes, they didn't help. Sometimes, it made him feel more lonely.

... but, he pushes this aside, all of these thoughts, all of those memories. She's right. He knows she is. He needs to hold fast to that.

... it just... leads... to more guilt, though.]

... I should have protected them. [He feels like it's irrational, because he knows that there's nothing he could have done against whatever it is that destroyed the worlds, but, but, but, but. He doesn't know how to keep himself from thinking that. And right now, being held like this, it... feels more okay to be like this. To be more childish.

(There is a part of him that is frustrated, and there's a hint of it in his voice. He's not normally like this. He's normally better at lifting himself out of this, picking himself up, finding something to do. But it's harder to shake tonight. There isn't anything to do, no one to save, no monsters to fight. ... though, maybe, he could look at it as, this negativity is a monster to fight. Maybe that would help.)]

[athousandcurses]

[Grainne is dismayed. The words are so familiar and so heartbreaking. This child, however old he might be, is obviously a knight...

Her track record of convincing knights of some things just isn't good enough for this.]

Don't say that, I'm sure you did everything you could. Some things just happen no matter how hard you try. It's a part of life. Don't try to hold yourself to unrealistic standards... it will only hurt you.

[childhero]

[A lot of things happen, no matter how hard he tries. After everything they did to stop Ganondorf, he still broke free. The Goddesses couldn't stop him. The only thing they could do was flood Hyrule, the kingdom they fought so hard to save. And, Termina, he -- He can only do so much in three days. Even if he helps someone in one cycle, it gets reset when he asks the Goddess of Time to rewind the clock. He knew, as he did so for the last time, that he wouldn't have time to help all of them before he faced Skull Kid. Some of them were going to still be suffering even if he stopped the moon from falling.

He lets out a shuddering breath. Some things just happen no matter how hard he tries. It's a part of life. He will always fail someone.]

I still have to try, even if it's not enough.

[athousandcurses]

You sound like my former husband...

[She sighs, running a hand over his head for comfort.]

But one small body cannot bear the weight of the world alone...