milliways_bar | (no subject)

(no subject)

[OOC : New here! I am playing Ronan from the end of The Raven King.]

Ronan Lynch, devil of a boy, dreamer of dreams and notorious insomniac, doesn't find it strange to find himself in a place like this. His dreams become reality. Thoughts brought to life. For all he knows this could just be another dream. Some hidden place on a ley line he's never been. Unless this place starts attacking him and trying to tear him apart piece by piece, he won't stress about it.

He looks around deciding on the perfect place to settle in. A booth. No one can come up behind him and he can look out and see everyone else.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A small, disbelieving smile tugs at Noah's lips. He takes one step forward, then another - and then he's rushing forward and grabbing at Ronan's sleeve as if to ground himself.

"Ronan?" he breathes. "It's you." He says it like a question he already knows the answer to: this feels like Ronan, the sharpness and spice that always suffusing his presence in a way that was tangible to Noah who perceived the world through unliving senses.

Edited 2016-07-17 23:00 (UTC)

Ronan had never felt Noah feel so solid. Like he was more. No longer a fading image of a boy. This had to be a dream. The danger in dreaming like he does is that sometimes it is very hard to tell what is real and what isn't.

"I thought you were gone." Alone in his room Ronan had cried when the realization that Noah was really gone hit him. Now he can feel him. It's so surreal he could cry again. Could but he won't. Ronan wasn't one to wear his feelings on his sleeve.

His fingers clutched Noah's ratty Aglionby sweater. "Are you real?"

Noah grins - it's nervous and fluttery, but boyish in away that suits him. "Seems so. How are you here? How did you get here--?" He freezes. "You're not stuck too, are you?"

"How are you here?"

Ronan had no idea how he had gotten here or where here really was. All he really cared about was how being next to Noah was possible? He had to find a way to make it stick.

"I don't think I'm stuck. I don't know. You're stuck here?"

If he was stuck maybe this wouldn't be the last time he saw him.

Noah nods, distress flashing across his expression. "I don't know how I got here. When... when Gansey came back, I was supposed to fade. Move on. And then I was here." His grip on Ronan's sleeve suddenly tightens. "Gansey came back, right?" You know Gansey, right? he doesn't say. If his sacrifice hadn't worked, at the same time two days ago and seven years ago and every moment in between, the timeline is irrevocably changed.

Ronan's gaze drops and he nods his head. "He came back. He's okay." Though he'll never forget what it felt like to hold his dead body. He looked back up at Noah, brows knitting together. "That was you? You did that?"

Relief floods Noah. "Oh. Oh. Thank god." Days of anxiety that felt like weeks drain from him all at once. He lets go of Ronan and collapses on the edge of a seat. He breathes in deeply.

After a moment, he continues - quietly, without looking up: "I used what I had left to make sure my death counted. But when I showed up here... I - I wasn't sure it worked."

Watching Noah his heart sinks. How was he supposed to feel about this? One friend disappearing to save the other. He wanted Gansey to live but he never wanted Noah to be gone. The strange mixture of feelings leaves him wanting to do what Ronan always does when he can't reconcile how he feels, hit something. Anger is a feeling he knows how to deal with.

"I wish you wouldn't have done that, Noah." Ronan said quietly as he sat down. "You didn't even say goodbye."

Noah smiles weakly, feeling his heart surge. Remembered. "Sorry. Things are weird when you're a ghost." He looks down at his hand and curls it into a fist, marveling again at how solid he feels.

But when he looks up again, the anxiety is back. "Are you sure you're not stuck here too?" He points toward the far wall. "Can you see the door there?"

Ronan looked down at his hand and a very rare smile tugged the corners of his lips. "You look...alive." Night after night he wished he could dream something to give life back to Noah. Just like he dreamed of a suit to keep Gansey from dying. The safety and well being of his chosen family was always on his mind. He didn't want to lose anyone else.

His eyes shift to the wall and he shakes his head. "I don't see a door over there but I was able to go outside."

Noah's expression falls - his hand drops. "You're stuck too, then," he murmurs. "We can go outside to the bar's grounds, but we can't go home."

That is a little worrisome. Ronan's brow furrows and he sighs heavily. Seeing Noah's expression he straightens up and shrugs it off like it's nothing. He thought he was gone forever and now they are sitting next to each other again, stuck or not, it could be worse.

"We'll figure it out. Gansey is off on some road trip with Blue. Parrish is doing what Parrish does." Work, work, getting ready for college, work. "Matthew is in D.C with Declan. Think I'm exactly where I need to be."

Noah starts. "Weird you say that. One dude said that's why we get bound - because there's something we need to do." He makes a face. "Don't know what it is yet, though."

Sitting there with Noah it seemed pretty clear to Ronan what he needed to do. Find a way to fix what was done to his friend. "I'll stick around while you figure it out."

Noah grins weakly. "Not like you have much choice. I'm sorry you got stuck here too."

"If I had a choice I'd choose to stay." He nudged him with his shoulder. "Shut up. I'm here. You're here. That's a good thing in my book."

But Noah shakes his head. "No," he says vehemently. "We have to get you back. If you don't know how you got here . . . what do you think Gansey and Blue and Adam will think when you've disappeared? What they think happened."

His expression is stony.

"If we have to get me back, we have to get you back." Ronan shrugs. It's a matter of fact. "There is a reason we found each other again, Czerny."

"I'm already dead. I've been on borrowed time for seven years already. But if you don't... if you don't find a way back, they'll think--" His voice drops. "They'll think you tried again."

He won't meet Ronan's eyes.

"I never tried." Ronan said in a flat tone. This was a conversation he had never had with Noah or anyone else and he should have. Only one person knew the truth and that person was dead.

"Kavinsky saw it happen. It was a night-horror. Sometimes the things I would dream would try and hurt me. That night they did." He wondered if Adam had told them about finding Ronan at the church with his dead doppelganger. "I'll find a way back. I don't want to go without you."

At first, Noah doesn't know what to say, although he sags as if a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.

Finally, though: "I don't know if I can go back. Andrew - the guy who told me about being bound - he says that when the door does appear to me, it might not go back there. I might... I might move on."

His face falls. It was easier when he could just hit something. Or scare someone into doing what he wants.

"Then maybe I'm just here to get to say goodbye." If there was something he needed to do, some kind of closure he wanted, that would be on the top of his list. Not getting to at least say goodbye. "I can stick around and help you figure out what you need to do."

"Okay," Noah says quietly. "But go home when you can, please. Don't let everyone else be scared. You didn't see Gansey that night."

"I promise." Ronan bumped his shoulder against Noah's. "Time isn't a straight line. We know that better than most people. They might not ever even know I was gone."

Noah smiles weakly. "Seems weirdly linear here, though," he says. "I can't jump around like I used to."