The Chained Watcher

Rest now, and dream your dreams

~~~

Arranging his wings to be comfortable, Grian fluffs up his pillow, getting comfortable on his big squishy mattress. Now that the necessary chores have been completed, he has time to rest and relax.

So, naturally, he's using his relaxation time to work towards uncovering more forgotten pre-Watcher memories. Perfectly relaxing.

His eyes close, breathing evening out. It's been long enough, he should be able to find at least a short memory, right?

Once again, a blank visualization forms within his mind, containing that feeling of potential he remembers having preceded the old memory. Don't focus on it. Don't pull at it. The only thing he does is sit here quietly, witnessing it without thought or judgement.

Someone calls something. A name? His name. Why can't he hear it?

He turns to look at them, a muffled answer coming out of his mouth. Their face is completely voided out, like someone went and whited out all the colors, and he can barely make out anything about them, but they're... a friend? Yeah, something tells him they were a friend.

Are they wearing blue? It looks like they're wearing blue. They're talking to him, and he's replying, but he can't actually hear anything either of them are saying. The lack of clarity is so frustrating-

The edges of the dream dissipate into fog, and he calms himself down, just letting the dream flow for a minute. It stabilizes, and he focuses on what he can see again.

So he can't hear the conversation, so what? There's plenty of other things to check out.

A lot of the background is just smudges of color, but there's a lot of blue, white, and gray. It's pretty hard to make out, but he's fairly certain this is that 'Empire' place with the partially submerged build. Is that this guy's place?

The conversation ends, and the blue guy walks away. He stays though, heading over to some wood-colored smudges. Chests? Yeah, he's rifling through them now. Does that mean that this is actually his place? Huh.

Looks like he's going to go build something, but he's distracted from what he was going to do by another oddly clear chunk of colors. Over to the side, he can see the strange platform with several flowers placed on it, though there's a hole in the middle of the dirt.

For a moment the sign is blurred, but when he recalls what he saw written on it it gains clarity. Always remember to place a flower.

Why? What's so important about placing a flower? Is the platform a memorial of some kind? But it doesn't feel sad, not like that, and why is there a hole in the middle? So many questions...

Can he focus on his recent memories and add clarity to the rest of the structure too? Slowly, the smudges and smears become more defined, outlining archways and water. At the same time though, he can feel the dream destabilizing. Everything becomes more distant, but before it all fades out he's pretty sure he watched himself fill in the hole in the platform.

How weird.

The dream goes blank. For a minute, he just lingers, committing everything to memory. He won't forget it again. Then, as colors start to bleed out of nothingness and assume the form of a familiar place, he turns his focus to analyzing it.

Isn't it amusing? His first reaction to seeing what he's assuming was his base was to immediately start fixing it up. That, and to place a flower like the sign said, though he still doesn't know what it was for. It kinda just felt right to do. How strange.

Now, let's see what memory of his is going to take the stage for the closing act this time.

His breath sparkles as he exhales, devoured the moment it leaves his lungs. He makes the motion of inhaling, but nothing happens, though that doesn't bother him. Ah, so he's out here this time.