(2018-07-16) Father's Rage
Father's Rage
Summary: DREAMSCENE: Bryce is suffering on the dreamplain, Callisto tries to intervene. She sees way more than she could have ever expected.
Date: 2018-07-16
Related: Heavy reference to this log.
NPCs: Derrick Stanton
Scene Runner: Mutual
Players:
bryce..callisto..

TP Room 3, OOC Areas
Mon Jul 16, 2018


Dreamscene: Bryce

(OOC: Mood music - "Holding Us" © Pat Metheny)

===

The attic has been Bryce's hideaway ever since the fateful day of rescuing Ashton. He keeps having to find different places to hide in the attic. The staff kicked him out recently but he hoped it wasn't a long thing. So, after a long enough amount of time, as in a day, Bryce finds himself back to a hiding spot in the attic. Oddly enough, there are a few bags that once had sandwhiches in them though he didn't pack them. Each time he finds a place to hide, he always wakes with some food next to him that he didn't prepare. He has been fighting against sleeping but at times, his exhaustion sneaks up to him and he slips into a fitful sleep. It is one of those fitful sleeps that he finds has claimed him again. Almost the moment he closes his eyes, the nightmare returns causing him to become restless and moan.

It seems the attic is the go-to for many students who want to be alone, or think, or rest. Callisto marches her way up into this lofty hideaway, this evening, with the express purpose to meditate calmly before bed. Things have been happening as of late in her life, confusing things… stuff that she may or may not be waffling over. These are hard times, in Callisto's personal life… so the best thing to do is sit in silence, in peace…. and breathe.

So when the elegant fey girl mounts the landing of the stairwell and pads barefoot into the attic space, there's a moan that catches her attention. This could be any manner of moan but this one sounds…. it wasn't a happy sound. Callisto freezes; stands in that perfect stillness that she is well-known for. Should she back away…? Cerulean eyes rove the shadowy expanses of the vast space, only to spy a boy's body huddled off by a far wall. Despite her tendency to keep aloof, Callisto's intuition goads her to investigate. She pads along, nightgown whispering at her knees, and this is how she finds — and hears — Bryce. Who is obviously asleep… and not having a peaceful go of it. The boy's innocent naivety has always appealed to Callisto and this is why the girl crouches down alongside him… worriedly. What is going on in this boy's head…?

It's easy for Callisto at this stage, to 'peek' instead of intruding. She sits herself alongside the sleeping, fitful Bryce, grasps for the threads of the mental imagery that seems to torment him so… and like stepping into a warm pool, Callisto enters his mind by way of her powerful psychic ability. Her 'arrival' to the dream won't be noticeable unless Bryce's mental capacities and psychic skills are able to detect somebody prying.

The airport seems rather vacant save for a few cars and an aircraft. Each element of the car and plane is shown in detail down to their license plates. A group of men are carrying an unconscious Ashton to the plane while Bryce and a group of teens from the school are there to stop them. Koga calls down a light strike as Bryce causes his large arcade claw to appear. He slams it down over the armed men standing there. While the other students work to free Ashton, the dream starts to fade them out. The scene plays on as in a movie but clearly the 'action' is focused on Bryce and Koga with the two remaining armed men that are turning them. A disembodied voice, Bryce's, says, "No. No. Stop it."

Well, here's one way for Callisto to be privy to what happened during the mission! Upon successfully leaving body behind in the waking world and taking up the mantle of her 'psychic' self, Callisto finds herself startled by the absolute clarity of Bryce's dreamscape. She does recall the boy's ability to absorb information swiftly and readily… and hold it… so the fey girl isn't entirely surprised to see everything laid before her, as if she were awake and observing something in the town itself!

She stands there, keeping herself 'unseen'; as in, if Bryce is one to remember his nightmares and dreams, he will have not noticed a tall, moonpale girl standing there in her diaphanous fae gown of black, lavender and some manner of dusty rose / champagne pink… all shot through with streaks of silver. Callisto, almost always, 'appears' in her dark faerie glory in dreamscapes. Behind her, a 'cape' of royal purple and black wings (akin to a monarch butterfly) ripples with every step taken. She's moving in the direction of the action when—-a voice. Bryce's voice. Callisto does not speak, yet, but marks this moment.

Glowing cerulean eyes watch what happens next.

"Put down your guns." Koga warns the two men.

Bang! Bang!

Two shots ring out with incredible intensity though the sound is slightly muffled as Bryce's memory is perfect with visuals though not as precise as his other senses. The bullets hit and deflect off of Koga and Bryce respectively. Bryce looks down at himself and then back up at the man who shot him. He seems equally surprised both by the fact that he was shot and that it didn't hurt him. Of course, Koga is in his armor and Bryce is wearing his armor under his clothes now. Bryce raises a hand again and causes his psychic sword to appear floating in the air in between him and the shooter.

Again the voice: "Don't. Please. Put it away!"

Here's where Callisto finds herself at a crux. She could attempt to 'steer' the visuals toward something else; this doesn't always work out of course. Then, what could would it do in facing down this horrifying nightmare if she were to press the 'Easy' button with her interference? Would it not only continue to recur, to plague the poor boy…?

Callisto's unseen face softens with genuine worry as she does not intervene. It is hard, because Bryce's disembodied voice — begging everything to stop — is difficult to go against. But if Callisto is to know what happened, maybe she can help…

Intense eyes watch the forming of this psychic blade; Callisto draws a deep, knowing breath… a sad one. She waits.

Bryce sword swings in the air, but the man who shot at him moves to the side causing the sword to miss. Bryce has never been especially good with his sword though having the maintain the claw and the sword at the same time is something that he has never done before. The strain of it is on his face, shown by sheer effort. As the man moves towards him, Bryce swings the sword once again.

"NOOOO!"

The scene slows as though someone pressed the slow motion button on the DVR. The scene focuses more just on Bryce and the shooter as Koga and his shooter fade into muffled haze. The sword swings forward trying to get between Bryce and the shooter. Another dodge. Another swing and then…it happens. The source of the trauma, the sleepless nights, the decrease appetites, the increase stuttering. The sharp psychic sword slices cleaning through his neck. The head comes off with the resulting pressure of the blood being shot out of his neck. It is not a fountain as in the movies but clearly more realistic. The agony and surprise on the man's head is plainly visible with all the details of Bryce's perfect memory. The memory-Bryce drops to his knees as the real one did, but then the memory shatters as another Bryce, the real one, the dreamer, drops to his knees nearby with tears streaming down his face. He rarely shows emotions (besides fear and nervousness) in the waking world, but in here, it seems his emotions are more honest.

<FS3> Callisto rolls Dreamweave: Great Success.

Sadness comes easily to Callisto these days; moreso than it ever did. She watches the proceedings with a rather stoic look… she is no stranger to blood and gore and terrible deaths. Granted, to be so swiftly beheaded is a merciful way to go… but it's never easy when one so gentle has to witness it. Still, the fey girl does not try to intervene.. she wants to see this through so she can understand. For she, too, has noticed the boy's recluse behavior in the waking world.

Now Callisto knows.. she can trust this dream, this memory, to be completely true. She gazes down at the severed head, and steadies herself as Bryce reacts accordingly. But even as the grisly vision breaks away, Callisto cannot quite handle the pain and terror anymore… with barely a flicker in her expression, she begins to push.

Tapping into the psychic energies at her disposal in this realm, the dark faerie attempts to shift the visuals away from the gore and perhaps from the tormented darkness that follows.. toward something that she figures will ease Bryce even a bit; even enough so he can 'talk' with her, when she makes herself visible. What will this be, if Callisto succeeds?

The interior of the Silver Fable bookstore, on a beautiful morning, sunlight illuminating the spines of shelves upon shelves' worth of books. But will she succeed…?

<FS3> Opposed Roll — Bryce=psychic Vs Callisto=Psychic
< Bryce: Success Callisto: Good Success
< Net Result: Callisto wins - Solid Victory

Bryce can feel the pushing of the psychic energy around him. It wasn't his psychic energy and being his mind this was clearly his world. As the horror of the airport froze like a paused movie with the shooters face staring right at dreamer-Bryce instead of memory-Bryce, the scene starts to ripple and flux around him. Slowly the bookstore forms around him. Even though it is pushed by Callisto, part of it, like any good dream, is formed by Bryce's own mind and memory. The parts of the bookstore that appear are prefect representations of the real world store down to the exact placement of all the books on the shelves when he last visited two weeks ago including that one book that someone put back in the wrong place. It drove Bryce crazy for a while.

However, not all of the airport and gore vanished. A piece of the airplane's wing can be seen in a haze outside of the window. The severed head sits frozen on the floor near a chair. "What, what is going on?" He sounds scared.

There is nobody sharing the space with Bryce, not yet; just the troubled boy and the severed head. That can't be nice. Callisto was prepared for overlap; she knew beforehand that her will was being pitted against another strong mentalist. So when the silver Fable indeed manifests in perfect clarity, the fey girl appears to step out from behind one of the bookshelves. Callisto wills herself to be visible, and should Bryce (the dreamer present) look in her direction he will indeed see her in the aforementioned fey glamour. Callisto looks 'raw' here, ethereal; her true self. Her hair trembles and moves by it's own volition in an unfelt 'breeze', and her gaze is locked upon Bryce. "Hello, Bryce."

Yup, sounds like Callisto too.

She, too, has noticed the severed head that snuck it's way into what she tried to make as peaceful as possible. She moves closer to the grisly thing, and tries to obscure it with the smoky hemline of her gown.

"I'm not here to hurt you. I am beside you, in fact, in the attic… you fell asleep. And you were pained." She explains in her smooth way, watching him.

<FS3> Opposed Roll — Bryce=psychic Vs Callisto=Psychic
< Bryce: Success Callisto: Good Success
< Net Result: Callisto wins - Solid Victory

Bryce looks around clearly confused and scared. The traumatized teen is clearly gunshy and this disturbance bothers him too. When he finally turns to see Callisto, he swallows a bit unsure. Why is he dreaming about her? She isn't scary. She is pretty…and loves books. She even sells them. "No, no, you shouldn't be in here," he shakes his head thinking he is talking to a figment of his own mind. However that shaking manifests inside of his dream as a literal shaking. A dreamquake.

Finally, the reality of what she said strikes him. "You, you are .. real?" He blinks a few times trying to figure this out. "How? Why? You, you shouldn't have to see this. Too ugly for, for someone like you." Pedestal much?

The dreamscape begins to shake, to quiver, and Callisto takes the situation in hand as if she were yanking a leash on some unruly beast. Bryce's confusion washes over her, infuses the space, and Callisto would be daft to not realize the poor boy's stance in matters. For now, Callisto holds fast, and the sunny echelons of a well-maintained bookstore continues to surround the two.

To Bryce's question, Callisto bows low, hair rippling and flickering in that strange force that buoys it. "I am here. T'is I, for absolute certain… and forgive me for being here. I mean no harm in intruding.. though I apologize for this measure of prying. It is just… I saw you struggle, in the waking world. I am a dreamwalker, you see." She straightens watches him… she takes a couple of steps closer but the train of her gown continues to hopefully obscure the head.

"I have seen a great many things in my life to date, Bryce. The only trouble I feel here, is your suffering." Callisto sighs gently, the very walls seeming to reflect her sadness for him. "Is this all a recollection from Ashton's rescue?"

<FS3> Opposed Roll — Bryce=psychic Vs Callisto=Psychic
< Bryce: Good Success Callisto: Good Success
< Net Result: Callisto wins - Marginal Victory

Bryce swallows hard as he looks around. The vestiges of his dream cannot be easily seen anymore, but he can feel them. It is like they are calling to him though in reality it is his own fear that is calling to them. The images of the bookstore start to ripple as though the force of the dream is trying to intrude, to push through. The horrors of his memory are but hidden by the beauty of the books and the fae.

Another great force is triggered though by Callisto though this is perhaps indirectly done. It was not by her powers that she caused this but merely by her presence and her words. The great force triggered? His curiosity. "Dreamwalker. So, you really are here, in my mind?" His eyes shift to the flickering of her dress. Her question causes another rippling along the bindings of all the books. "Yes, when we rescued him."

Shuffle. Something shifts behind Callisto though all that is back there is the frozen decapitated head, the chair, and the books.

The girl stands tall and watchful.. does she look taller than usual here, even? Maybe it's just the effect of her swirling, shimmering regalia. It is sheer, albeit not so sheer in spots as to be indecent. Callisto is aware of every ripple in the dreamscape; every attempt of painful memory to paint the dreamscape with terrible visuals again. She is able to maintain this likeness of the local bookstore, but only just in this particular instance. Callisto gives the 'room' a slow glance, and her eyes find their way back to Bryce.

There, that unquenchable curiosity. Her lips curl into an earnest, elegant smile. "I am. I can yet remain until I tire, which shall take some time yet.. or if you wish me to leave. Or physically oust me. Though you needn't worry about such force, for I shall leave voluntarily. I am simply worried for you."

She silences to listen to the answer to her question, and the fey's face softens with a touch of sadness. "Did you—" Beat. She looks behind herself at this shift, then slowly back to Bryce.

"You had to destroy a man, in self-defense and defense of others, no? Is this what brings you such turmoil?"

<FS3> Opposed Roll — Bryce=psychic Vs Callisto=Psychic
< Bryce: Good Success Callisto: Good Success
< Net Result: DRAW

Was the head in a slightly different position than before? Odd.

Bryce drops his head as she asks that question as well. "I, I didn't want to. I didn't mean too." Oddly, his stammering and stuttering is much less here in his own mind. Perhaps if he wasn't so traumatized by the events, the stuttering would be gone in here completely. "I tried to stop him. We told them to put down their weapons." There is sheer agony in his voice. As the agony swells, another dreamquake ripples through the bookstore. Some of the tiles crack showing the tarmac below. A few books fall from the shelf showing the darkness of the gruesome seem behind them. Worse of all, the word 'Murderer' replaces the title of some of the remaining books. "I killed him, Callisto. I killed him." He lowers his head again and while he doesn't cry, the sprinklers of the bookstore start to spray. Again, there is the shuffling, shifting sound behind her.

The girl is perceptive, and she turns to look over one lithe shoulder at the changes in the 'room'. Her safe haven is being shaken by the shifting visuals, and Callisto finds it even harder to hold fast. "Nobody, save for truly deplorable sorts, truly wishes to kill for the fun of it. You are the very last soul whom I would mark as a murderer, Bryce—-" She starts. The girl pads closer to him now, making to join him where he cowers though she pauses again, really noticing now the changes. Callisto glares at the books as their titles change accusingly, and she injects some firmness into her tone for a few seconds. "Bryce. Look only at me." She bids, brow furrowed. "Your memories, your experiences and fears.. they are poisoning the vision once more. Focus on me and what I am to say to you." She almost begs; almost. This can only get worse if the boy doesn't rally.

"You did." Said softly, but not in a cruel way. "T'is the reality and it hurts my heart to know the a good soul such as yours has known murder. It is a mind, Bryce, not necessarily a weapon that makes a murderer. Your efforts.. they were not pushed by malice.. you wanted to protect. Think—" She stares at him, reaches forth to touch his shoulder. "Were you not there to help save Ashton, think of the awful things that could have befallen him."

<FS3> Opposed Roll — Bryce=psychic Vs Callisto=Psychic
< Bryce: Good Success Callisto: Good Success
< Net Result: Callisto wins - Marginal Victory

Bryce forces himself to look up at her. Perhaps their love of books helps bridge the gap that he feels between him and almost everyone now. "I'll, I'll try." He tries to focus on her but the reality, the ultra reality of it all threatens to force itself back in on him. "I couldn't let them keep Ashton. I couldn't let them hurt my fr- my teammates." He almost said friends but he wasn't really sure if that word applied or not. Being so socially awkward and inexperienced, he didn't really have any actual experience with the word though he could define it in multiple languages if someone wanted. The book 'The Friend' starts to glow behind him as though his mind is wrestling with the word. "But I couldn't stop his death either."

Another voice speaks from behind Callisto. It is an older voice, an angry voice, a voice used to command and authority. "She is lying. I told you this would happen." The voice comes from the decapitated head though the face has changed. No longer is it the face of the shooter, but it has instead changed to the living (though still decapitated) head of a middle-aged man who bears some similarity to Bryce. The voice startles Bryce and causes a shiver of fear and a dreamquake.

"Your friends." Callisto says firmly, meaningfully. Her eyes are so very brilliant, affixed to Bryce's face. "T'was hard for me to call others such, do you understand? I would use any term other than 'friend'. "We are all your friends, Bryce… not just classmates." The fey girl tries to convey with her fluting voice.

Then, an intrusion. Callisto may feel badly to intrude on this nightmare, but she does not tolerate other intrusions. She pivots on a heel to look down upon the face set in the decapitated head, then looks sideward to Bryce.. stepping a bit closer to him. "Whom might this be?" Callisto asks loftily, looking back to the face. The dreamscape quivers, shudders, and the mentalist reaches out to again touch Bryce's shoulder, only this time her hand doesn't move. "Who are you, and who are you to call me a liar?" All the chill of her Northern homeland in that query, and it is to Bryce next that Callisto continues with that same gentle, but insistent tone.

"Speak to me of what this means. To which this being refers."

<FS3> Opposed Roll — Bryce=psychic Vs Callisto=Psychic
< Bryce: Good Success Callisto: Success
< Net Result: Bryce wins - Marginal Victory

It isn't Bryce who speaks first, but the severed head. "I am his father. -I- gave him life. =I= returned him to life. And who are you, you abomination. Invading dreams? Destroying secrets. You speak of friendship. I am family!" When he says family, another powerful dreamquake breaks part of the bookstore. Shelves collapse and a section of the floor falls away, but it is no longer the airport anymore behind it all but a cold, sterile, highly advanced room filled with medical equipment. The severed head begins to float upwards as a faded body starts to form for it.

"Do-don't talk to her, uh, like th-that. She is…is is pretty and kind and, uh, she loves books." The stammering is even worse now than in his normal waking self.

The fey girl stands her ground.. she is used to being talked down to (her family is no picnic either) and in fact, when someone unknown to her does so, Callisto immediately bristles. Not just that, but this.. 'father' is speaking so terribly of his son. This hits close to home and Callisto straightens and steadies, replying in her own stoic, cool way. The term abomination rolls cleanly off of Callisto's back and her eyes narrow. "I know naught of what true family is, but I know WELL of what a foul example of family happens to be. How dare you call yourself a father?" She pauses as the dreamscape shatters, fades away, and is replaced by something clinical and staunchly… scientific. Why is it that people she cares about, why are they tied to laboratory and/or medical settings? This reminds her of something spied in Daxton's dreams and the girl is only empowered by her anger.

But this is not Callisto's fiend to 'tell off'.

If Bryce will allow it, the girl will hook her elbow into his to offer support. "Focus on my voice, Bryce. T'is a shade, here.. you have absolute power over this man in this realm, do you know that?" She asks the boy in a firm voice, "And in the waking world you are learning how to fight back against such filth. I wish for you to tell him off again, banish him. I shall remain here and lend to you my power. You can do this."

Bryce's father glares as Callisto goes to touch his son. "Bryce, if you would have come home when you knew you should have, then none of this would have happened. It is using this abominable powers, the cursed atrocity your whoremother caused, that is causing all the problems: the headaches, the fear, the pain, the murders. Come home now. I'll end it all, son." There is an odd fatherly compassion in that last sentence as though Derrick Stanton acts like it all fits with everything else he said. "And you, whatever you are, let go of my son."

Bryce looks up at Callisto. He is silent all throughout his father's speech. "I, I, … " It is as though some part of him wants to, but he simply cannot bring himself to do it, to go against his father. "I can't."

"See, you are weak. Your own body is trying to kill you. Only I can help, and you know that is true." Bryce's father throws his hands wide causing another ripple tearing away even more of the bookstore leaving only a few shelves left. Oddly (or perhaps purposefully), one of the few remaining shelves, has the very book on Einstein physics that Callisto helped him find so long ago.

<FS3> Callisto rolls Psychic: Great Success.

More words, more awful words… Callisto weathers them, releasing the boy and pointing imperiously to that awful man. "There are those who would cultivate your gifts, strengthen them and in turn.. strengthen you, Bryce. You are where you must be." The fey girl rallies, upon hearing that this 'father' would 'end it all'. She knows what that COULD mean and her belly feels icy with anger and worry. She does not even dignify Derrick's jab against her with a response.

Then Bryce says that he 'can't'.

The bottom of Callisto's hair, hanging well past her hips, begins to tremble and lift. It sways behind her innocuously, much like the 'hair' of the Gorgon head amulet that she wears for protection on the dreamplain. This amulet, in dreaming, appears as a pure white glow at her breastbone. Her intense, but caring gaze latches onto the younger Stanton.

"You are not weak." Callisto belts out, even as shelves are ripped asunder. Something catches her eye and she turns to look upon it, recognizing the tome. With but a thought and flexing of her powers, she attempts to 'will' the book into her hand. If this works, she will hold the surviving copy of 'Newton to Einstein: The Trail of Light.' in front of Bryce.

"We can help you." Said firmly.

<FS3> Bryce rolls Psychic Armor: Success.
<FS3> Bryce rolls Psychic Construct: Success.
<FS3> Bryce rolls Psychic: Great Success.

Bryce's father now has a fully formed body. He unphased by this transformation of Callisto. "Get your hands off of him, you powered bitch." He comes storming towards Callisto as though about to do something to her and with him being a manifestation of Bryce's mind that pulls the powers of Bryce at his disposal.

"No." A soft simple word from Bryce. Bryce looks as the book floats from the shelf to Callisto.

"What did you say to me?" Bryce's father asks demandingly.

Bryce looks up at his father and says, "You, you can't talk to, to, uh, her, well, like that."

Bryce's father just laughs at the stammering of his son. "And what are you going to do about it? Nothing, nothing like always." He takes another step towards her, but this time there is another quake. A giant shelf rips up from the floor and comes between Callisto and Bryce's father preventing him from getting to her. As he tries to get around the shelf, another and another shelf rips up from the ground forming a defensive shell.

This must be the method to Callisto's madness… not that she wants to exploit the difficult relationship between father and son, but for him to get angry at the shade… maybe that will empower him. Much as it, sadly, had done so when he used the psychic sword.. but this is different. The corner of her mouth twitches at the 'powered bitch' comment, and this only serves to chill Callisto's expression even moreso. Her nostrils flare once and she holds her head up haughtily, and yet she says nothing to give this man the time of day… er, night. Dream. That's it.

The only flicker of emotion in the fey girl's face is when Bryce says 'no'. What a powerful word. She turns to watch the boy, even as Derrick advances on her.. what could he do to her, if he 'touches' her? It would likely wrest her from the dreamplain, but… Callisto isn't about to find out.

Because another quake hits, creating that wall. She calls past the chaos of shelves moving and shifting, "Your capacity for knowledge is your power. See, here." She indicates the shelves. "Knowledge is not nothing, t'is everything!" The fey girl hollers over the din.

Derrick Stanton, who is not up for father of the year, starts to yell at his son. "You think these books can keep me from your little 'friend' there. She is just using you. They all are."

Bryce shakes his head and says, "No, no, that's not true."

Derrick starts to tear at the bookcases, ripping them apart as though his very anger, his hate empowered him to cause this level of destruction to what is basically the inside Bryce's mind. "How long until you 'accidently' murder one of them?"

That shoots Bryce's fear to another level altogether. "NO!" He yells in the dream and in the real word. This causes another dreamquake that is many times more powerful than the others combined. The medical room, the bookstore, the airport, all begin to rip apart and collapse into the nothing as Bryce starts to thrash in the dream. He is mere seconds from waking up in a cold sweat.

<FS3> Opposed Roll — Callisto=Psychic Vs Bryce=Psychic
< Callisto: Good Success Bryce: Good Success
< Net Result: DRAW

It's time to pull the plug on this one. Callisto narrows her eyes, and begins to concentrate. Poor Bryce's sleeping mind is so incensed and upset that it is hard to contact him, to pull him away… but it helps that he is already that close to the edge of awakeness. For Callisto, moving from dreaming to wakefulness is as easy and swift as snapping fingers. She is pulling out of a meditation, not true slumber… so she is perfectly coherent when and if Bryce awakens easily, looking upon him with worried bluish-green eyes.

"Breathe. Take a deep, deep breath." She bids him, voice a near whisper. It is the musty attic that greets the boy upon waking, the sunlight a golden-dunn color as it sets and peeks through the dormer windows.

Bryce's eyes flash open. They are a bloodshot color showing that this hasn't been his first nightmare on the subject though it has never turned into a ordeal with his father. His circlet flashes which causes his clothing to tighten and fill out some which means he has instinctively activated his under armor. He is panting and sweating. He looks disoriented. "What, what happened? What … " He hears the voice of Callisto. "You, uh, you, was that, uh, did you … ?"

The girl is seated closeby but not getting into his personal space, long legs curled inwards in the lotus-style positioning. Unlike the dark, ethereal appearance that she maintained in dreaming, Callisto is wearing an expensive-looking silken sleeping gown… feminine, but respectful. Judging by her still-damp hair, she had just completed her evening routine before coming up here to find Bryce's fitful slumber. Cerulean eyes flit to the activated, flashing circlet and then back to Bryce's face. She can see why Sierra calls him 'Cheekbones'.

"You've had a horrific nightmare. I entered it through meditation, and I saw most everything. Forgive me for seeing things that I should not have… but your suffering worried me." She explains, being honest. She tilts her head, the reddish light a corona at her crown. "I can sit here awhile with you, if you wish, if it shall give you comfort. But there are a few questions that I desire to ask, if it is not too personal.. when you feel calmer."

Bryce looks down, unable to look at her mainly because he feels ashamed of what she saw in there. "I wish, I wish you didn't have to, to meet him." He doesn't say father nor does he say his name. "I, uh, I know that it is just my, my mind playing him, but, well, with my mind it seems so real." He looks up at her finally and says, "He really would say, uh, those things. Well, probably worse." Bryce's gentleness prevents the full manifestation of his father. "I'm, I'm sorry."

"You needn't apologize to me." Callisto says gently to the boy and, in that moment, does one of the most mortal things that her previously fickle immortal soul would have prevented. She reaches out and if Bryce shall allow it, she will try to ease him into a friendly, supportive hug. If she feels the barest inklings of otherwise; of do not want… Callisto will hold off. For now she just feels terribly for how upset he is. "T'is I who, again, owes an apology. I have been spoken to before about meddling, of going to places where I mustn't pry.. but you were in a bad way." The fey girl sighs gently. "Your father struck me as a formidable, overbearing man.. but I meant it in saying that you have support here, right? Do you believe me when I say this?" She watches him, brow furrowed.

These words feel familiar.. someone else said the same thing to HER and Callisto's heart beats a bit harder at the memory. She is completely without guile in what she says next, "We are all here to help you, and if he ever comes here… or does anything to harm you.. we will support you."

Bryce normally isn't for touching and hugs, but there are a few people who can get away with touching him right now and Callisto is on that very short list. He is a bit tense as she offers the hug, but he allows it nonetheless; however, he sees unable of returning the hug and is just passive. "I, thank you, I have thought about, well, that I should go back, uh, to him. A few times. Something, er, someone usually makes me change, change my mind." He looks up at her with sadness in those red bloodshot eyes. "I didn't mean to do it." He refers to killing the man.

And well, Callisto doesn't linger in the hold. It is a brief, but earnest point of contact and in seconds she will ease back slowly to give him the space he needs. She rests her hands in her lap and simply goes on watching Bryce, her head bowing briefly in thought. "I shall say in full esteem that the next time you return to him, t'would be to face him and show him that you a worthy member of this society." The fey girl looks up again, and indulges in a poignant pause.

She continues, "You may not have meant it, but it happened. It does not make you a bad person. T'is part of your powers and you are here to learn how to control them. But let it be known that you helped to prevent a greater problem… and surely a great amount of pain that will have been inflicted upon the boy, your friend, who was rescued."

Callisto lets that sink in, and says little more as Bryce calms down. She will remain seated beside him for as long as necessary until he is ready to leave, or rest again. Callisto is good at stillness.

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