ocean

config.footer.left: " " config.style.backdrop: "black" config.style.page.color: "blue-0" config.style.page.link.color: "blue-3" config.style.page.link.lineColor: "white" config.body.transition.duration: "400ms" -- <audio autoplay loop> <source src="https://cdn.pixabay.com/audio/2021/08/04/audio_ea1b013f5f.mp3" type="audio/mp3"> </audio> Water sloshes around his knees, calm and warm. It's high tide, he thinks, watching the waves crash against the rocks in the distance. There's someone at the shoreline, waiting for him. * [[Walk closer]] * [[Wait here]]

Sand rolls under his feet and between his toes, the occasional rock being nudged out of place as he walks towards the shore. Everything is muted, almost quiet. He can't hear any of the birds. * [[Keep walking.]] * [[Pick up a rock.]]

GR1: 1 -- The waves roll and croon something that sounds like a lullaby forgotten from childhood. It'd be alright to rest here for a bit, and admire how the water ripples under his fingers. * [[Turn to the horizon.->Look back.]] * [[Walk to shore.]]

Is he even getting any closer? He treads water carefully, unhurried even though every fight or flight instinct in him demands of him to move faster, faster— His limbs are slow. The waves part around him in languidly, droplets landing on his face when he splashes too hard. * [[Keep walking.->keepwalking2]] * [[Look back.]]

GR1: 0 -- Just five minutes, he tells himself, diving deeper into the water. The sand is coarse under his fingertips as he blindly pokes around, trying to find a decently sized rock to bring back with him. His fingers curl around something rough, still mostly stuck under the layers of sand. Some kind of small plant tickles his palm as he tugs again at the rock. * [[Try again.->Pull out the rock]] * [[Leave it behind.->Walk to shore.]]

Sand shifts under his feet. His fingers are cold enough to resemble blocks of ice, and he's exhausted, having tread water for too long. The shore is _so_ close. He slips, stumbles over something solid and warm— And someone reaches forward to grab him, struggling to pull him out of the water. When he opens his mouth out of instinct, bubbles flood out, obscuring his vision. _There's something in the water,_ he tries to warn despite the lack of air in his lungs. Whoever is holding onto him yells something, muffled and terrified, and right before he's tugged out he looks down and sees— Lights. Thousands of lights. [align center] ~~[[WAKE UP]]~~

Sand shifts under his feet. His fingers are so cold, and the horizon stretches out in front of him like a never ending mirror. He can't tell where the sky begins and the ocean ends. It's terrifyingly beautiful, as though the world had fallen inwards — the sky reaching down and the waves reaching _up_ to meet it. The water rises, and keeps rising. There's salt in his mouth, and someone's screaming from somewhere, too far to make out anything. Too muffled under the waves. He's sinking, the sand vanishing from under his feet, and he's _sinking—_ [align center] ~~[[WAKE UP]]~~

config.style.page.link.color:"red-6" -- [align center] ~~[[Dream another dream->Dream]]~~ [align center] ~~[[return to AO3->https://archiveofourown.org/works/48701626/chapters/123236752/#ret]]~~

He should probably get back by now. The sun would start to set soon, and there was someone waiting for him. [if GR1 === 1] ...Just five more minutes wouldn't hurt, right? * [[Keep walking.->Walk closer]] * [[Pick up a rock.]] [if GR1===0] * [[Walk to shore.->Walk closer]]

Sand shift under his feet. He tugs harder on the rock and beams, satisified when it finally comes loose. ...There's a light shining through the gaps in the sand. He puts his face closer to it, squinting. The light refracts and wavers, too blurry to really be seen above water so he takes in a breath, then plunges his face underwater. His eyes sting slightly when he opens them, swimmming closer to the seabed. This close, he can see something scuttling, crawling under the sand in quick motions. It's solid and warm when he pokes at it, like some kind of a worm. Abruptly, it bursts out from under the layer of sand, latching onto his face with a startling speed. He jerks back, hands scrambling to his face even as whatever _it_ is squirms under his eyelid and starts to gnaw right on the fluid-flesh of his eyes. He screams, soundless, blood and bubbles rising up to the surface. Through his blurry vision he thinks he can see a figure racing towards him on the surface, but there's something tugging on his feet and something moving in his eye and the salt water _burns—_ [align center] ~~[[WAKE UP]]~~