distressedude | 033 ~ [Action/Written]

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033 ~ [Action/Written]

[ Late Night - House One ]
[It's late at night when the usually peaceful House One will find itself rudely awoken by a scream.]

[Although it wasn't uncommon for Ion to have nightmares, usually he woke up with little more than a gasp. Sometimes he cried out, but never loud enough to disturb the rest of the house. But with the departure of a number of friends from Luceti, it seemed as though whatever control Ion had been holding onto since the draft had disappeared, and the added stress caused the nightmares to return tenfold.]

[Tonight was worse than usual. The scream was followed by a loud crash, like the sound of something being thrown against the wall.]

[The door is unlocked.]

--

[ Action - Written ]
[Following a very unrestful night, Ion will be trying his best to have a normal day, knowing that taking a nap would only make it more difficult to fall asleep that night. So he starts off his day as he would any other, beginning with a morning jog around the village with Colonel. Of course, given how tired he already is, it probably looks more like Colonel is just dragging him around. And at some point, Colonel is going to notice Ion's fatigue and force him to take a break in the most mature fashion possible.]

[After finally getting Colonel back home, he spends a little time in the library reading, but inevitably that proves to be too relaxing an activity and he winds up falling asleep, book still open. He won't be sleeping too deeply though, and just the sound of someone walking past him will probably startle him back into being awake. Though unless you want to see him fall out of his chair, it probably wouldn't be a good idea to walk up behind him.]

[Once he's back at House One, he spends the rest of the evening relaxing. But even though he's yawning and clearly tired, the light in his room stays on, and Ion won't be going to sleep just yet. And even after it seems like he finally has, sometime around midnight, a written message pops up over the network.]

I realize it's rather late, but does anyone have any experience in dealing with nightmares? Or perhaps, a method of how to prevent them from happening?

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[Jade will be patient. He figured there might not be much for him to exert.

He calmly sweeps a sheet off of Ion's bed and drapes it over his shoulders. It's not hard to guess what had affected him so deeply. When there's nightmares that can even leave Jade feeling unsettled, he can only imagine the impact they have on Ion.

He silently hovers nearby as he waits for the fon master to collect himself.]

[When Ion feels the sheet being draped over his shoulders, he reaches up with an unsteady hand and clings to it, pulling it closer. But even still, it takes him a number of minutes before he finally speaks up. His voice, as before, is still weak.]

...what happened?

[Once he speaks, Jade takes a moment to tweak at his glasses and responds calmly.]

You were sleepwalking, Ion. Or perhaps, more accurately, you were sleepfighting. [He sees no need to hide it from him; Ion has to know, in fact, if they're to find a solution to this.]

Sleep... fighting?

[It takes a few moments for his brain to catch up. When he asked what happened, it was under the state of mind that what had just transpired in his mind was real. But the more he hears Jade's voice, the more he seems to realize it wasn't. He wasn't on the battlefield, he was in his room. He was still in his pajamas. He was safe.]

[But it was all a lot to take in, and somehow the overwhelming sense of relief just has him clinging to the trash can again.]

[Jade frowns. Ion seems to still be waking up and getting ahold of things. It's a truly sad sight.]

Take some time to wake yourself up first. It may be easier to process then.

[It takes a few more minutes with the trash can before Ion can even attempt words again. After a few coughs, he finally seems well enough to speak without sounding quite so dazed.]

It was... it was just a dream, wasn't it? [The question is only half rhetorical.] And I'm... not still dreaming, right?

As far as I can tell, you're entirely conscious. [He keels down near Ion, taking a closer look. And he manages a teasing smirk.] But feel free to pinch yourself if the fon master needs absolute certainty.

...I don't think that would work with these dreams.

[Because the more he wakes up, the more he recognizes what sort of dream he just had. Certainly he's woken up on the floor after tossing himself out of bed, and he's even been known to talk in his sleep once or twice... but this was completely different.]

[And he's also certainly never mentioned any dreams like this before. This went well beyond your average nightmare, even without the whole hallucinating part.]

[The smile makes a very subtle fade away as he looks on more seriously.]

Were they related to the draft? [He might as well be direct in asking. It's the prime logical possibility, especially given his earlier behavior.]

[He nods, keeping his eyes low. It wasn't an easy topic for him, and even though he seems to have gotten better at talking about it since the last draft, in exchange, it's taken a larger mental toll on him than it previously had.]

I thought that's where I was when I-- when I woke up.

Yet you weren't awake at all... [He presses some fingers to his forehead as he considers this.] Has this happened often, Ion?

No... at least, nothing like this. I've only ever woken up in bed or just beside it on the floor. And even that doesn't happen very often.

[Even the content of the dreams didn't seem too out of the ordinary. They were always vivid and terrifying. It just looks like this was the first time he's actually projected how he acts inside the dream outwardly.]

I've had nightmares before, but I thought they had finally gone away. I didn't think they would... get worse.

Yet, they have. [He pushes at his glasses.] They've gotten dangerous. You nearly cast one of your artes in this room, Ion, with the coordination of a sleeping man. Action needs to be taken against these nightmares as soon as possible, before someone is hurt.

What?

[He looks up at Jade, and then down at his hands. What if he had actually cast that arte? Could he have hurt whoever came in and checked on him? What if it had been Anise, or Nephry?]

[He tightens his hands into fists and looks at the ground.]

...if I knew of a way to stop the nightmares, I'd have done it ages ago. I don't know what else I can do for them.

[Don't forget Colonel the puppy! Wouldn't that have been a fun situation!

He pinches the bridge of his nose before resting his hands in his lap. He's dealt with his fair deal of nightmares over the years. But he knows that it must be different for someone like Ion - someone who can't just power through them. Someone who doesn't truly deserve them.]

It's true that there is no easy way to cast off nightmares. However, if one can reach and address the issues at the root of these dreams, it may have an effect. Even something like a lessening in severity would be significant progress.

...I thought they had lessened in severity. I had them almost nightly after the last draft, but then around the time of my birthday, they became more infrequent. [Just in case Jade had any lingering doubts as to the true source of the nightmare.] Now it seems as though they've started up again... though I'm not sure why.

[It could be a lot of factors. He did tend to get a bit stressed around this time of year, as many of the people he's grown close to over the years have left in the summer. And even now, both Luke and Miss Perona have been sent home in a rather short frame of time.]

[He listens carefully as he thinks it over.]

There have to be other factors at play, in that case. Yet, we haven't heard much from the Malnosso recently. [Aside from that mission thing, but Jade knows that Ion stayed behind at that time. There has to be something more.]

Could it have to do with Luke?

[He doesn't respond at first, bowing his head to think on that for a moment. The timing was certainly right.]

...I have always been a little tense around this time of year. This isn't the first time Luke has disappeared in the summer... and Dist disappeared around this time as well.

[It was strange to think that was nearly two years ago now. And unlike Luke, Dist never returned to Luceti -- much like a number of his other friends who have left.]

[It's hard not to be a little tense, knowing that this is the last place Ion would ever see any of them again.]

[Jade listens carefully. It sounds like an unfortunate pattern, to be sure. He's also still not accustomed to hearing Dist's name said like that. He looks on curiously as he sifts through his thoughts.]

It sounds like an unfortunate trend, to say the least. [He goes on, making sure there's no judgement in his tone - just a candid observation.] You truly came to think highly of Dist.

...he was my friend. [But unlike other friendships in Luceti, rather than going back to a world where they never knew each other, Dist had gone back to a world where they were enemies. Perhaps that's what made it so difficult to accept, even after all this time.]

[It wasn't exactly relevant to the topic at hand, but truth be told, Ion was more than happy to move on to a different topic -- even if only for a little while. Usually he tried to avoid talking about Dist in front of Jade. After all, the man Jade grew up with seemed very different from the one Ion called his friend. But regardless of whether it's just a result of being so shaken by the nightmare or not, Ion doesn't bother to filter his thoughts when he speaks.]

He was always looking out for me. When I was injured on the battlefield a few years ago, he was one of the ones who helped save me. He stayed by my side until we were sent back to the village, and continued to worry over me until I recovered. Even when he complained, I knew he wouldn't have done all that if he hadn't cared about me.

It may not have come close to making up for all the things he did on Auldrant, but... while he was here, he was a good man. And a good friend.

[He gives it fair listen. Dist's behavior - and even moreso the fact that it worked at swaying people to like him - has been one of the most puzzling phenomena he's encountered in Luceti. Dist has always been a constant in his life; Jade has accepted long ago that Dist is incapable of true change and will always be stuck in the past. That's how he marks the difference between them: Jade was able to move on and change. Yet here, could it have been different?

All of his time in Luceti has made the subject much less sensitive to him. So Jade attempts to keep an impartial attitude as he listens and remarks, stroking at his own chin.]

I see. I suppose that it isn't the least likely thing I've ever heard. This is the kind of place that wouldn't enable his usual schemes, as well. But even beyond that... Perhaps this was the type of existence that he never knew that he was seeking.

[A simple life in a village, surrounded by caring people... and ah yes, he couldn't forget that other factor.]

The Professor's time here overlapped with his, didn't it? Yes, that would further explain a great deal of it.

...it did, yes. [And on at least one occasion, Ion had something of an argument with Dist about his motivations in regards to the professor back on Auldrant. Though even now, Ion can't say he understands the whole story.]

But I don't know if you can say that was the only factor in his behavior here. Even in the beginning, he gave the impression that something must have happened to him back on Auldrant just before he arrived. ["I had been attacked by a monster close to Mount Roneal"...]

In any case, it was only a few months after her time here ended that he was sent back as well.

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