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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

[awesome_lilly]

There's nothing here that Lilly doesn't want, except for all that she can't leave behind.

So it's perhaps not exactly a surprise to her when the chair appears. Or that she knows who's sitting there without looking, knows very well indeed.

That being so, it's perhaps also not surprising that she doesn't turn her head to look at him quite yet, just keeps her gaze fixed on the water and a sun that is always setting but never gone.

[lastgunslinger]

The tide hasn't come back in yet.

Time passes. Or maybe it doesn't.

"'Dover Beach'. You had to read it in your first year of high school." Dry. And a little warm. "What was your opinion of it, xiao meimei?"

The lifeguard's chair is white, and wooden; when he moves, it creaks comfortably. It's an old chair. Though maybe Roland Deschain isn't exactly Lilly's mental image of a beach lifeguard.

[awesome_lilly]

He's a little old, say true, and a little overdressed for it.

A shrug, one-shouldered.

"I would have liked it more if the poet-guy and his love had been true to skinny-dipping instead of their emo affair, but... dude liked the ocean, so that's a point for him. One, at least."

[lastgunslinger]

"This isn't England, and France isn't out there." He isn't wearing a hat. Or guns. "And if you'd wanted the Sea of Tears, I imagine the Dream-lord would have taken you there." Roland looks back and forth. Scanning the horizon. "This does me just fine, Lilly. Say true."

[awesome_lilly]

Kurt Vonnegut would tell him to wear sunscreen and beware of lobstrosities. But then, Roland wouldn't listen to Vonnegut.

He'd let the girl drop, and evade the shotgun blast, and keep on going somehow, because that's what he does. Love's a handicap, life's a glammer, but you keep going anyway.

"Works for me too," Lilly agrees, and in her head a small voice adds ...for now.

It's her place, safe from Despair and Desire but it's not peace and it's not an ending. Just another waystation, really, a place to be when she can't quite manage to keep going.

[lastgunslinger]

Mal Reynolds could tell her that when you can't keep going, you find somebody to carry you. And Roland could tell her that maybe the best person (or not-person) to carry you is your Endless.

Lilly probably knows this well.

"They say need's the key here." Roland looks over the side of the chair, down at the top of her head. "So. Will you walk with me? For there's other places to be. Not that we'll leave the shore." There's that smile -- like Mike's, or Indy's. "I've grown to like it. Say thankya for that."

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly smiles at that, small and fleeting, as she turns to look up at him.

"You're welcome, Ro."

The breeze picks up as she stands, a gap in the drifting clouds on the horizon letting a little more sun through to warm the sand they'll walk on.

[lastgunslinger]

Roland stands, and jumps, and lands crouched on the sand. His feet are bare.

And he straightens. "We're headed this way."

Off to the left. Going south.

[awesome_lilly]

Bare feet are blank canvases where Lilly's concerned, usually.

This is not usual.

She takes his hand.

"Well, you seem to know where you're going, so... I guess we walk on, then."

[lastgunslinger]

Not a lot about this is usual.

Something that is: Roland is silent as they walk.

They're not looking for a door, or a source of water, or a prisoner or a lady of shadows. And they're going south.

There's a lump further on down that slowly takes shape. It's a tent. A large one. And in front of it are two chairs -- folding chairs -- and a circle of rocks with driftwood piled off to the side.

"Shall I make dinner?"

[awesome_lilly]

"Sure," Lilly replies, drifting over to a chair.

"I mean, it's not like I suddenly learned how to cook since the last time I saw you. Actually... I don't know that I've learned much of anything since I saw you last. Ka's a bitch, but that's old news."

She thinks for a moment.

"Oh, wait. One thing that's new? Triceratops like getting their horns painted."

[lastgunslinger]

"What the fuck's a triceratops?"

There's a cooler; Roland removes the top and begins poking around in it.

"Sausages." He holds up the package. They're actually hot dogs.

[awesome_lilly]

"Dinosaur, but this one's little," Lilly says.

She thinks Roland probably knows dinosaurs. Because of Wash. Moving on.

Lilly glances at the package.

"Those are hot dogs, but close enough. So, I'm not going to have to try to remember what fork to use for dinner, am I?"

[lastgunslinger]

"Only if you use a fork."

Roland tosses the package back in the cooler and sets to work building a fire. "It's going to be a while before it's hot enough to cook over," he says over his shoulder. "Might as well talk."

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly arches an eyebrow.

"Wait, you... you, Roland Deschain, want to talk? Damn. This may be my weirdest dream ever."

She settle more comfortably on the chair.

"Okay, what do you want to talk about? Because if it's cute boys, I should probably get out the nail polish."

[lastgunslinger]

Roland straightens up a little; he's still hunkered. His hands dangle between his knees. "I wouldn't have described Alain as cute, myself."

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly stiffens, but only a little. No hooks catch at his words, not here where her memory of Alain is dimmed and her feelings are muted. There is no scent of summer peaches on the breeze from the ocean.

"Well, true, but I don't think you'd ever describe anything as cute, Ro."

[lastgunslinger]

"Also true." Serenely.

[awesome_lilly]

"So how would you describe Alain, then?"

A little less serene. She's spent less time with Moiraine.

[lastgunslinger]

Roland thinks about this for a moment, turning a piece of driftwood over in his hands.

"Solid."

[awesome_lilly]

"Oh, we're doing the one word game? I can play that."

Lilly tilts her head.

"Gone."

[lastgunslinger]

"Not just one word, if you don't want."

Roland reaches in his pocket for flint.

[awesome_lilly]

Lilly shrugs.

"I think that one kinda covers it."

[lastgunslinger]

"Has it occurred to you that he could come strolling up? Since I have."

Quietly, to himself: "Spark-a-dark..."

[awesome_lilly]

"No. Because he can't."

She turns away from the fire Roland's lighting, towards the ocean, as Dream's words echo in her mind.

No one, nothing, will walk here without your permission.