To Drown In A Sweet Dream [Vanyel/Calypso]

The instant that Calypso put her hands up, a flare of azure blue energy rippled across his body, tinged with a sickly crimson as the energy would harden, taking the shape of blue dragon scales across his body, his nails sharpening as his fingers took benefit from activating his defenses, since he didn't have his knives or his sword on him. His breathing remained at a rapid pace, his eyes wide, only to squint as his vision continued to blur and double itself.

"You're...You're trying to control me. T-Trying to keep me tied down so I can only do what you want! It's not gonna happen... I'M NOT GONNA LET IT HAPPEN AGAIN!"

Almost immediately after finishing, another torrent of fire burst from his mouth, scorching the floor and spreading cinders through the air. He tried to take a step back, forgetting that the wall was behind him, and his eyes went wide as he felt the wall against his back, his hands instinctively going behind him, fingers digging deep into the wall as another wave of anxiety flooded over him and his hands started trembling again.

"NOBODY GETS TO CONTROL WHAT I DO ANYMORE!"

He continued to squint and blink, trying to get his eyes to focus, squeezing them tightly shut and shaking his head, only to open them and for nothing to change -- in fact, it only seemed to make it worse. The walls seemed to be alive, reaching out for him as they pulsed and moved. The shadows seemed to crawl towards him, wide, white smiles stretching out far beyond what they should have been capable of as they stared at him with eyes that looked as if they were scribbled on by a madman.

He let out more shaky, light breaths, giving small, brief bursts of fire from his mouth as his hands slowly rose up to hold his bleeding arms, eventually rising up to his hair as his head turned from side to side in quick jerks, as if trying to see what was there before it would fade away. He could hear voices in the distance, as if they were in the next room over.

'Did you dye your hair, young man!?'

It was...the voice of his mother. His fingers coiled around his snowy hair, his body scrunching up as he absently started to tug at it, not even hearing what Calypso was saying as he spoke aloud to no one,

"S-So what if I did...? I like it. It looks cool..."

His hands coiled tighter around his hair, lowering his head.

"WHO CARES WHAT YOU THINK!? IT'S MY FUCKING CHOICE, AND MY FUCKING BODY, GOD DAMN IT! I'LL DO WHAT I WANT WITH IT!"

As Calypso slid off the bed, Vanyel's hand rose, trembling as he took a step forward. He wanted to tell her to get away -- to stay away from him, to keep away so that he didn't hurt her. Even if he loved her to no end, she had tried to tie him down, and if she was going to take away his free will, he couldn't trust her. He kept squinting and blinking, trying to get his doubled vision to go away, shaking his head and shutting his eyes to try and forcibly correct it to no avail.

As she got closer and closer, Vanyel drew his hand back as his eyes widened in panic. She wasn't listening. WHY WASN'T SHE LISTENING TO HIM!? He told her to stay back, and she should just STAY AWAY. He didn't trust what she was saying, and his eyes remained pinned at her hands, keeping his own hands ready as she got closer. The closer she got, the worse his vision got, causing him to blink and squint more and more, trying to figure out which of her that he was seeing was real.

"I said...d-don't..."

His breathing quickly picked up its pace again as she went to sit down, turning his head away as he wildly swung his hand to try and keep her from getting any closer. Slowly sliding down and sitting on the ground, he quickly started to kick outward, sliding back against the wall and retreating into the corner of the room, slowly turning his head back to face her. Her smile seemed so real and genuine like she really was wanting to help...but he couldn't bring himself to trust it.

It looked too real, and he didn't want to end up getting tied down again -- he wasn't going to be some kind of fucking experiment or something for her. He could see the walls and furniture swelling and pulsating around her and looking at it only made him feel nauseous. Vanyel slowly tried to stand up, reaching behind him to try and feel for the wall and use it to prop himself up, but the moment he did, his head started spinning and he stumbled in place, losing his balance before he hit the wall, wincing at the sudden thud against his shoulder, shakily reaching out and pointing at Calypso with a clawed finger.

"N-Not one step closer...DON'T FUCKIN' MOVE FROM THERE!"

As he leaned against the wall, he was about to take a step away, before suddenly grabbing his head again, tugging at his hair as he heard the voice of his mother again -- sounding closer than it had previously.

'Ugh...when are you going to let your hair go back to normal? You looked wonderful with your normal hair, sweetie, and now look what you've done to it, turning it white like that. I still don't understand why you'd change it. You've even stopped letting me cut it for you, and now it looks like a rat's nest.'

He turned his head away, wordlessly stumbling toward the bathroom, reaching around and smacking the nightstand as he struggled to get his hand on the knife laying there, still unable to properly see what it was that his hand was hitting. Dragging the knife away from the nightstand, causing a loud, hideous scraping sound as he groaned, staggering into the bathroom and staring at the two copies of himself looking back at him in the mirror, still squinting and blinking as he struggled to focus and keep himself from vomiting from the room swaying constantly, only staring at himself and occasionally looking at the knife in his other hand.

The translucent cobalt energy around his body and fingers slowly faded as he brought the knife up to his head, his hand trembling more and more as he squinted at his blurry copies,grumbling in frustration as he tried to focus, to see clearly in order to make the cut properly. No matter how much he tried to force it, his hand wouldn't stop shaking, and his lip wouldn't stop quivering.

His fingers squeezed tightly around the handle, only for his head to suddenly whip around, glaring at Calypso as he heard her moving, and he immediately started to hold out the blade of the knife out toward her, shakily bringing it back to himself as he slowly turned back to face the mirror, keeping an eye on Calypso in the corner of his vision, as if the moment that he let her out of his sight, she would try something, try to tie him down again or try to stop what he was doing.

With each breath letting out a small burst of flames, Vanyel squinted one last time before he suddenly jerked his arm up, missing his hair entirely and, instead, making a small cut on his forehead. The human growled as his arm shook, slowly bringing the knife down and staring at it, before suddenly screaming out in anger, as well as pain, hurling the knife across the room and out the door, flying over Calypso's head and burying itself in the wall.

"STUPID FUCKING KNIFE!"

Vanyel sniffled as he stumbled backward, hitting the wall and slowly sliding downward, sitting on the floor as he buried his face into his knees, screaming at the mirror.

"WHY CAN'T I JUST DO THIS ONE FUCKIN' THING RIGHT!? IF I DID, THEN YOU'LL STOP BITCHING ABOUT IT AND LEAVE ME ALONE, RIGHT?!"

Vanyel slowly lifted his head, wiping away tears as blood smeared over his face and eyes from his bloodied arms.

"It's never enough...always makin' me feel like shit because I wanna do something that I like because I'm not followin' your fuckin' way of life. Too long, too short, don't like the color,"

Bringing a hand to his hair, he gently took a lock of his dyed, snow-white hair between his fingers before letting go and trying to get to his feet again, staggering and, in his doubled-vision haze, smacking his face into the door, stumbling back. A loud growl rumbled in his throat as he immediately lashed out, punching the door frame and winced, but quickly drew his arm back, holding it at his side as he hugged the wall, making his way back to the other end of the room as he kept his eyes on Calypso.

A new, more intense wave of dizziness hit him like a brick, and Vanyel started swaying, reaching for the wall and feeling nothing. The walls seemed to be even more active than before, swaying, pulsing, shrinking, and growing with even more intensity than before. It felt like the room was alive, trying to keep him away from it, to isolate him and push him toward the other being in the room. Between multiple blinks and squints, trying to focus on the presence of Calypso in the room, Vanyel saw a very different sight.

Calypso was there -- with scratches tearing up the floor around her, tears running down her face despite her smile, and a mix of shadowy-blue and crimson splattered across the floor and the walls. Her face and her body had changed, she looked...off, everything about how she was right now just looked...wrong. Four additional eyes opened along her face as her jaw stretched open past where her neck and throat should have been, sharp, inhuman teeth jutting out from her maw like some kind of even more sinister Pisaca.

Her hands and feet were full of holes, and it all just...made him so uncomfortable, it made him scared. He wanted to run away, to hide, to get away from this thing that was trying to take the form of the woman he loved. He could see a figure stepping from the shadows, sharing Calypso's snowy hair as the figure stepped into the light, reaching forward and covering her mouth with one hand and clawed fingers hovering over her heart.

Algos.

Vanyel tried to take another step back, only to hit the wall again, as he heard whispers slowly increasing in volume, his own voice, gradually turning from whispering to screaming.

'It's your fault...'

'You couldn't help her...'

'YOU'RE WEAK.'

Vanyel covered his ears, tears welling up into his eyes all over again as he sunk to the floor, shaking his head to try and drive it all away. Soon, his own voice was drowned out by the voice of Algos, with the human slowly lifted his head to see her snarling at him.

'YOU DON'T DESERVE TO LOVE HER.'


'YOU AREN'T FIT TO LOVE HER.'

"Shut up...SHUT UP! SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UP!"

Vanyel screamed over and over again, shaking his head and covering his ears as lightning started to crackle around him, fizzling to life along his body as wavers of fire constantly burst from his mouth with each passing breath and every word he spoke, choking out one final thing before he slumped over, holding himself as he broke down sobbing from all of the pain that he felt rippling across his body and the torment that his mind never seemed to let go.

"Leave me alone...please, just leave me alone..."