hypnagothic | [The City] IC Contact

Oh, you're not just going to show up in my flat this time? East end of the park?

You are not attempting to run away this time.

I shall be there momentarily.

I shall be there in the normal amount of time it takes to walk

[ Teleporting show-off. Actually, can he even still do the teleporting thing? Maybe she'll ask that, too.

"The normal amount of time" isn't long, maybe fifteen minutes. It's not the first time Johanna has gone for a middle-of-the-night walk, though she usually avoids the park and its graveyard. Feels like borrowing trouble to go wandering there alone after dark. But an empty city feels closer to normal at two in the morning than it does at two in the afternoon, if you ignore the lack of trash or rats or foxes.

She does find it hard to ignore.

Her footsteps are quiet on the pavement as she approaches the park, with her trench coat a white -- if a bit dingier than it once was -- beacon in the streetlights. ]

[ uuuh so about that teleporting thing. it actually takes Dream about twenty minutes to arrive, his walk just as loud as anything else in this city makes him without the distracting background noise of other creatures and things. he looks a bit annoyed as he approaches ... ]

[ Johanna is just starting to wonder if she should text and ask if he's standing her up when she spots him. You know when you see a crow or something walking real fast to get away from something and it seems silly because they have, you know, wings?

She gives him a wry smile as he approaches. ]

Teleportation on the fritz?

[ or like a cat who did something embarrassing and is thoroughly ignoring said act. ]

It would seem so. I arrived somewhere unexpected and decided to not attempt it again.

Ah, don't worry, it happens to lots of entities. Thinking about it too hard only makes it worse.

[ he gives a small nod of acknowledgement, then turns slightly to start walking with her. ]

[ Constantine genuinely can't decide if his lack of reaction is annoying as hell or hilariously delightful. Some people, man!

They fall into step, and she falls silent for a minute or two, thinking back over what they were talking about.

Eventually, quietly: ]

I do get why you wouldn't mention it.

[ he's just as quiet as she is while they walk, though his silence seems to stretch a little longer after her statement. ]

... As I had written, it has no bearing on him.

And if it did, you'd be an open book about it, right?

I imagine as much as you would be.

I tell people things sometimes, believe it or not. [ She sighs and admits: ] Not that it's fun, generally.

Anyway. How did it happen?

[ he's still reluctant about it so it takes several more moments of silence and walking before he finally speaks again. ]

Circumstance and happenstance, generally speaking. Burgess came into possession of a spellbook, one that would not have affected me ordinarily. However, he used it at a time when I had been depleted in strength, unable to fight or defend against such magicks.

And once you were called, he was able to bind you.

Was he powerful? Or was he just lucky?

Burgess was never powerful. The tools he abused and used improperly were.

Fuckin' Western esotericists. [ She nods grimly. ] Some of them were smart, don't get me wrong, good fundamentals, but Christ were they cocks about it.

Those that were truly powerful knew to hold respect and caution for it.

Mm. And the rest wanted to be lords of all creation.

[ How properly British. Makes you want to scream. ]

So how did you get out?

To be truthful, I am uncertain if it was a moment of neglect or of pity. The lover of Burgess's son had negated a portion of the spell used to bind me which then allowed me to enter the dream of one of the guards.

His son? God. He was maintaining the spell for -- how long? Sixty years? Seventy?

One hundred and seven years.

[ his voice is soft there, only just louder than a whisper. ]

[ She knew it was a long time. And she might have thought, well, to an immortal, what's a long time?

And the answer is, when you don't know when you'll get out. If you'll get out. If this is your whole life, now, forever. This place where nothing is yours, not your time, not your dignity, nothing.

And to an immortal, what's forever?

It's a long time. ]

I'm so fucking sorry.

[ Her voice is hardly any louder. Two years in Ravenscar seems like a pittance, by comparison. ]

[ he glances sideways at her as they walk, meeting her eyes if she'll meet his before turning forward again, walking a few more paces in silence to let her condolence hang in the air between them a while longer. ]

I had only escape a few days prior to meeting you in London.

[ She does meet his eyes, unsure what she'll see there. ]

Yeah.

And how long -- how long did you have before you got dragged here?

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