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[lastgunslinger]

It's a little hard to figure out time in the Dreaming. In some cases, that's the point.

Kind of like this one.

Eventually, a little ways down the beach, a chair becomes visible. A tall lifeguard's chair.

Somebody's sitting in it.

Comments

[lastgunslinger]

"Do you regret it?"

From somewhere he's gotten a cigarette.

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly is very, very still.

"Not... not really. Not yet."

She tries for a smile that never quite makes it.

"Ask me again in a hundred years."

[lastgunslinger]

Roland tilts his head back slowly and exhales, also slowly. It's an action that looks like it feels good.

"Why a hundred years?"

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly shrugs.

"It's a nice round number. I don't actually have any idea how long I have to wait now. Raven basically said a while, and, well, he's been alive for about a zillion years. But he's also a trickster and a bastard, so really it could be any time."

Long enough to matter, I think.

"Just... probably not any time that I think of as soon."

[lastgunslinger]

He nods, slowly.

"If I were to give you advice again, it would be the same thing I told Jake, a long time ago."

More smoke.

"It happened. Make do."

[awesome_lilly]

"Working on it."

Lilly glances around.

"I made this, after all."

[lastgunslinger]

"You're doing well, then."

There's a stick resting on the sand at his feet; Roland picks it up and pokes at the fire. "Almost ready."

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly laughs, a little, at that.

"Yeah, if I just stay here forever, I'll be fine."

She's joking, but the words linger in her mind.

This is her place, where nothing can hurt her and no one can enter that she doesn't want to see. It's all that she can't leave behind, and it's empty but for a... friend, maybe, who's moved on already.

Maybe she won't stay here forever, but... she could.

[lastgunslinger]

If Roland hears her words, he gives no sign.

The sun doesn't ever go down, so it's not quite like it was along the trail. Also, there's no singing. No Bob Dylan, no Beatles, and no ZZ Top -- Eddie Dean is far away, after all.

And no

(can't you see what your love has done to me?)

'Careless Love'.

There's sharing of khef, though. Roland isn't one to discourage underage drinking, after all. And the vintages of the Dreaming are always particularly fine.

And maybe some marshmallows.

[awesome_lilly]

Well, you know what they say: Roland Deschain. He's a marshmallow.