[After the lesson, Kratos needs some space, and for the most part the others are willing to give it to him. He's aware of Lloyd hovering without hovering, but for the most part having Yuan nearby is enough.
[As night approaches, the subject of sleep arises, primarily as a medical concern in the fact that he doesn't remember how to turn it on. It's Botta who suggests the use of sleep-inducing teas to allow Kratos to track the flow of mana leading him toward sleep. Given that and a few days, the theory goes, he ought to remember how to shift his mana toward more human concerns.
[The first night, he doesn't sleep. Yuan takes him out of the house to sit under the stars and the great expanse of the heavens above them, and the black depth of the gorge below them, and fulfills that promise to tell him something about Lloyd's childhood. This is derailed somewhat; Kratos asks questions about Iselia, about the Sages, about Dirk, about Yuan's life on the run -- one or two questions about their journey.
[The second, third and fourth nights are similar. There are stories about Lloyd, but perhaps fewer than intended, accounting for Kratos's desire to learn the context of his son's life as much as the life itself. During the day, it's easier to avoid thinking too much, with lessons, and with the children ready to spring to distraction. He ventures toward Asgard, once or twice, only in the company of someone else. He never goes far enough to meet the other city residents.
[The fourth night he's yawning, but does not sleep. The fifth night, he actually feels his thoughts scattering, and his mana clicking into that sensation of requiring basic human needs. It's an alien feeling, like a muscle he hasn't used in far too long, but his ability to sleep is finally on and he knows how to turn it off, if necessary.
[That night, he trudges up to the room in which he'd first awoken. That night, he sleeps.
[That night, he dreams.
[It's as though the last few days are the dream, and he's back in the reality of fifteen years with that respite an already distant memory. He can feel the Seed's thud in his soul, the grinding agony of the two worlds in a never-ending attempt to tear each other to ruins. He can hear Mithos's voice.
["Mithos -- please -- help me --"
["Shut up, Kratos. Shut up -- traitor! Human. Now you know what it feels like for every half-elf, ground beneath the heels of two worlds!"
["Stop!"
[Those on the outskirts of Asgard waken with their hearts pounding and shivering with the pain of an unheard scream, and chalk it up to nightmares. But in Botta's house, the scream is that much closer, pain mingled with fear and a hopelessness deep enough to drown in.]
TITANS; night horrors
[As night approaches, the subject of sleep arises, primarily as a medical concern in the fact that he doesn't remember how to turn it on. It's Botta who suggests the use of sleep-inducing teas to allow Kratos to track the flow of mana leading him toward sleep. Given that and a few days, the theory goes, he ought to remember how to shift his mana toward more human concerns.
[The first night, he doesn't sleep. Yuan takes him out of the house to sit under the stars and the great expanse of the heavens above them, and the black depth of the gorge below them, and fulfills that promise to tell him something about Lloyd's childhood. This is derailed somewhat; Kratos asks questions about Iselia, about the Sages, about Dirk, about Yuan's life on the run -- one or two questions about their journey.
[The second, third and fourth nights are similar. There are stories about Lloyd, but perhaps fewer than intended, accounting for Kratos's desire to learn the context of his son's life as much as the life itself. During the day, it's easier to avoid thinking too much, with lessons, and with the children ready to spring to distraction. He ventures toward Asgard, once or twice, only in the company of someone else. He never goes far enough to meet the other city residents.
[The fourth night he's yawning, but does not sleep. The fifth night, he actually feels his thoughts scattering, and his mana clicking into that sensation of requiring basic human needs. It's an alien feeling, like a muscle he hasn't used in far too long, but his ability to sleep is finally on and he knows how to turn it off, if necessary.
[That night, he trudges up to the room in which he'd first awoken. That night, he sleeps.
[That night, he dreams.
[It's as though the last few days are the dream, and he's back in the reality of fifteen years with that respite an already distant memory. He can feel the Seed's thud in his soul, the grinding agony of the two worlds in a never-ending attempt to tear each other to ruins. He can hear Mithos's voice.
["Mithos -- please -- help me --"
["Shut up, Kratos. Shut up -- traitor! Human. Now you know what it feels like for every half-elf, ground beneath the heels of two worlds!"
["Stop!"
[Those on the outskirts of Asgard waken with their hearts pounding and shivering with the pain of an unheard scream, and chalk it up to nightmares. But in Botta's house, the scream is that much closer, pain mingled with fear and a hopelessness deep enough to drown in.]