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It was very difficult to get things done when your best friend (or boyfriend or mate or whatever the appropriate title actually was) was living in your head. Goliath did his best to allow Elisa to remain in control of her own body, but it wasn’t easy. For either of them.

After all, as well as sharing a body, they shared thoughts and feelings. For Elisa, who was far from forthcoming when it came to her emotions, it was proving to be a constant battle. In many ways, it would have been easier to share with a stranger. They’d reached a comfortable balance in their relationship since she’d woken up from the pods and she didn’t want to disturb that. Not when things were going so well.

If the way that Goliath kept trying to focus on his favourite plays and novels was any indication, the gargoyle was finding it just as hard to keep things that he wouldn’t ordinarily share concealed. And spending a long time as a human was definitely something it would take him a long time to get used it. Elisa sincerely hoped that he wouldn’t have to get used to it. They knew who was responsible for the chaos now. (The goddess, if that was what she really was, hadn’t been particularly secretive.) What they didn’t know was how to persuade her to change them back.

They’d find out.

OOC: Open to anyone who would like to bother Goliath and / or Elisa while they're stuck together during the soulcatcher plot.

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Elisa was used to running on little or no sleep, but she was only human, even if a gargoyle was currently sharing her body. She needed to rest, but, as exhausted as she was, that was proving to be easier said that done.

It wasn’t Goliath’s fault. He was used to the stone sleep, which was swift and immediate and very different to the way that things worked for a human. The process of falling asleep was utterly unfamiliar to him.

She tried to reminded herself of that as he unintentionally pulled her back form the edge of slumber yet again, opening her eyes to gaze up at the ceiling of her bedroom in the castle with a tired sigh.

Edited 2011-12-05 22:33 (UTC)

. . . that was a dream, wasn't it. The roof hadn't actually disappeared.

Gargoyles knew about dreams, from the rare occasions they had them while unconscious for reasons other than stone sleep.

The process of drifting off, where dreams and waking intertwined until one overtook the other seamlessly, was not one Goliath had been prepared to observe.

Guilt overtook him, briefly, as he considered the number of times he'd already prevented Elisa from getting the rest she needed - as if she didn't get enough sleep already, with the time she spent watching over him in his involuntary slumber.

I regret waking you again.

"It's fine," she said, speaking aloud before reminding herself that it wasn't actually necessary.

You've never done this before. I might taking falling asleep for granted, but it's new for you. Just take your time.

(She'd shown remarkable patience when helping the clan adjust to the modern world. She could do the same now.)

Elisa rearranged the blankets and pillows until she was - they were - suitably comfortable, then closed her eyes again.

Out of habit, he took a deep breath and gave a long sigh. Even breathing felt unfamiliar out of his own skin.

Calming down enough to sleep was a challenge of its own. He could distract himself from discomfort at his - at their situation during waking hours, but this human process of sleep did not allow him to consciously distract himself from unloaded thoughts. Consciously distracting himself was exactly what was keeping him - and thus Elisa - awake.

If only he could enjoy this moment for aspects of what it was - an intimate moment of peace with the woman he could not consciously allow himself to acknowledge in worded thought that he loved - without at once wishing for his mind to be his own again, wishing for his body back so he could experience this moment with her, instead of through her.

Your patience is endearing. He could not restrain the feelings he had for her from transferring through their shared physical territory, and 'endeared' was a pale representation of those feelings - but if he couldn't keep his feelings to himself, at least he could wait until Elisa wanted him to, to put words to them where she could hear. I fear mine will run out sooner.

It was an intimate moment, certainly, but the fact that they kept snapping back into wakefulness stopped it from being truly peaceful. Still, she smiled when he showed his appreciation - both in words in her head and in feelings that they still fell short of naming - and brushed her hair back, hoping - in vain, as it happened - that doing something physical and practical would keep her own feelings in check.

It's just one night. When we find a way to fix this, things will get back to normal.

The sooner, the better. She ... she cared for him deeply, but this was too close for anyone.

I will be glad of that.

There were a couple of things he'd have liked to have taken his frustration out on - speaking of doing something physical - and none of them were things Elisa could punch without hurting herself.

As she touched her own hair, he resisted the urge to smile. He concentrated on things he'd read and found worth remembering to prevent himself from dwelling on how much he'd always liked her hair, and how glad he'd be when he could brush it back for her with his own hands.

If the dull substance of my flesh were thought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way;
For then despite of space I would be brought,
From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.

That was almost funny at the moment.

- though I would not mind a little remoteness compared to this.

She'd have suggested the shooting rage, but she had a feeling that that wasn't the same as punching something and would be nowhere near as therapeutic for Goliath. They'd just have to cope.

Shakespeare? She guessed the name of the writer of that particular poem, before smiling despite herself. It was almost funny. It was as if someone had tried to make it easier for them to be together, but had managed to get mixed up on some very important details. I know what you mean. I don't want remoteness, just a bit of space.

Edited 2011-12-15 23:08 (UTC)

Of course.

He'd found that one of the easiest ways to keep his thoughts harmlessly occupied was to put them to the task of recalling poems he'd read more than once. Shakespeare's sonnets had already provided much of the background thought for his day.

If the verses distracted Elisa from having thoughts she would have preferred to keep to herself as well, then all the better.

Your company can only bring me pleasure, but there is closeness, and then there is . . . this.

She wasn't the only one who wanted her space. Goliath was a social creature, but an introverted individual. He valued having his thoughts to himself, in a way he hadn't before considered.

This . . . falling asleep. They were still at the task, a task which felt very much like physical surrender - something Goliath was not at ease doing, particularly not when he was without his usual size and strength, his claws, his fangs, the rest of the attributes that made him sight not to be disturbed in a state of relaxation. There must be something I can do to hasten the process.

Stop thinking might have been one, but that was a challenge he had never set himself to mastering.

There were a number of strategies that humans used to fall asleep, though Elisa was generally so exhausted by the time she actually got to bed that she had no trouble dropping off.

It was worth a try, though.

"You could try counting sheep?" she suggested.

Although it would probably work with a different animal. If it worked at all.

Why sheep?

And what sheep where? It seemed like an arbitrary tactic.

"I don't know. It's a tradition. You imagine them jumping over a fence and keep counting until you fall asleep.”

Keeping her eyes closed, she summoned up the image. A field, a picket fence and a herd of sheep getting ready to jump.

“It stops you think of all the other things that are keeping you awake.”

The sheep grew a little woolier, a little more dirty as Goliath remembered sheep from his time in Scotland. He'd seen them more there than Elisa had in Manhattan.

He considered pointing out that he had never known a sheep to be particularly effective at jumping - but that was clearly not the point. So far, though, the only thing this technique was accomplishing was causing him to think in detail about sheep. Which was, in its own way, dull enough to encourage sleep.

He pictured one jumping. Then another.

Yes. Absolutely dull enough to encourage sleep.

The authenticity of the sheep probably didn't matter, although Elisa was amused when Goliath made the animals that she'd conjured up a little more realistic. At least it was clearing his mind of more distracting thoughts. She counted along with him, watching sheep after sheep jump over the picket fence.

They’d managed to drift off to sleep eventually, but dreams were just as unfamiliar to gargoyles as the concept of falling asleep. It was still going to be a long night.

Elisa woke up in her old bedroom in her parent’s house, knowing without explanation and without needing to think about it that she was late for work. Except, suddenly, it wasn’t work that she was late for, it was school. Her mother was calling her from downstairs and she knew she had to hurry if she wanted to make breakfast before Derek ate everything worth eating.

She jumped out of bed and grabbed her familiar red leather jacket from the back of her chair as she hurried to open the door, but when she left her bedroom it was to step out into the clock tower. Her family – sitting around a table in front of the clock face – didn’t appear to have noticed the sleeping gargoyles, though it look like her mother had cooked extra in case they were hungry when they woke up after sunset.

Edited 2011-12-05 22:32 (UTC)

Atom stopped off at Castle Wyvern on a whim -- Goliath had said he could visit, right? As long as he was at home. Maybe he'd let Atom read some of his books!

The castle seemed pretty quiet today, though. Atom wondered if anyone was around. Well... there had to be a door knocker or a bell or something, right? If not, he could just yell.

The library was usually an invaluable resources, but none of the books that they'd looked through so far contained the answers that they needed. In the end, it was Elisa - and not just her body - that pushed back her chair and stretched as she got to her feet.

This isn't getting us anywhere.

And conducting a conversation by thought alone was still difficult to accept.

I need to stretch my legs.

Well, yelling it was. Atom put his hands over his mouth like a megaphone, calling up to the top of the castle.

"Heyyyyyy! Is anyone in there?"

Agreed.

Goliath was as restless as she was, perhaps more so for all that he missed having his own legs to stretch.

It seems we have a visitor. Fortunately he recognized the voice, so there was no need yet to get worked up about trespassers - which were the least of his current problems anyway, he recognized, even as he thought it.

Because Goliath could remember Atom, Elisa could suddenly picture and remember Goliath's exchange with the boy, as well as Goliath's general feeling that he'd seemed like a good kid.

Before she could ask who it was, Goliath's memories supplied the answer. (Which was an unusual experience in itself.) She wasn't a naturally trusting sort of person, but Goliath had good instincts, most of the time, and she trusted him implicitly.

"Then I guess we should go and say hello."

Although I'm not sure how we're going to explain this.

She hoped that he already had some idea of what was going on across the ship.

I meant to introduce you in any case.If the subject arises, please give him my greetings.

Otherwise it might have been better for him just to sit this exchange out - as he had been attempting to sit most other things out, rather than impose on Elisa's right to her own body.

That he had to give up his own active presence in any matters to do so continued to frustrate him, but that was what their research was for - and they wouldn't continue to be productive at it without a break.

Hmm. Maybe Goliath wasn't home. Should he go? There was a lot of screwy stuff going on with this bodysharing thing; maybe he was busy breaking up fights or trying to figure out what was going on.

"Okay, I'll come back later!" Atom announced, giving the castle one last look in case someone was home after all.

"It's ok," she called, stepping out of the library to catch him before he departed. "I'm here. I mean, we're here. It's complicated."

She appreciated Goliath's attempts to allow her to act independently, but they weren't as successful as they would have been if she hadn't been able to feel his frustrations at the same time. Besides, Atom was his friend. It wouldn't have been fair of her to expect him to sit the conversation out.

"I'm Elisa. Have you been keeping up with ship news lately?"

If he had, it would make things a lot easier.

Oh, it was that detective from Security. Atom had seen her around, but never actually talked to her before. He gave her a little wave. "I'm Atom. And yeah, I have. A bunch of people have been showing up with the same body. Nothing like this ever happened on Earth... oh, are you a friend of Goliath's?"

"I am." That was one way of putting it, anyway. They were still ironing out the fine print. (Though the soft smile that illustrated her answer probably went some way towards explaining what they'd yet to put a name to.) "We were both affected. Goliath is ... in here too."

In their world, something like this had happened before. But it had been voluntary - Broadway and Angela had offered to let Coldfire and Coldstone use their bodies - and it had been different. More like borrowing that sharing, with the other soul lying temporarily dormant.

Atom did a double-take. "Oh. Sorry, I didn't know. Are you guys okay?"

For a little while, Atom had known what it was like to have not just two, but millions of personalities inside of him. Hopefully, it was a lot quieter and a lot less terrifying with only Elisa and Goliath.

"We're coping," said Elisa with a wry smile. That was an honest answer. She couldn't say that she was finding the situation easy to deal with - the fact that they were unable to keep their thoughts and emotions to themselves was particularly hard - but it could have been worse. At least she trusted Goliath. It would have been horrible to have a stranger in here with her.

"What about you? You're still ... yourself?"

"Yep!" Atom said, tapping his chest with his fist. "Guess whatever caused this doesn't affect robots. Or maybe I was just lucky. Anyway, don't worry -- we'll definitely get to the bottom of this!"

Somehow. Despite not knowing what was causing it in the first place.

"It could be both," she noted. "There's a lot we don't understand about this spell."

There had been a time when she wouldn't have thought of robots as having souls at all, but, since then, she'd met a lot of different kinds of robots. Maybe Atom was closer to Coldstone and Coldfire than the steel clan.

Goliath saw no reason not to compare Atom to his robotic brother and sister, who were certainly souled beings.

I cannot bring myself to believe this child is without a living soul.

It was just a feeling, but it was a feeling he didn't have about other robots. Occasionally it was a feeling he didn't have about living creatures, so perhaps it could be fostered, if not relied on.

I agree.

She would have done based on Goliath’s assessment alone, but meeting him for herself only served to confirm the thoughts he’d shared with her.

We know that being a robot doesn’t mean you don’t have a soul.

At some point, Peter had moved the Spider-Mobile Mark 2 over to the castle, and at the moment was working on the underside

Rolling out on the dolly to grab a tool, he saw Elisa.

"Hey. Still stuck together?"

Please tell Peter I said 'good day.'

Hey, how often does he get to say that?

"Goliath says hi, Peter," said Elisa as she crossed the castle grounds to join him. "I mean 'good day'," she corrected. (He didn't get to say that often and, even if she was technically the one saying it now, she wouldn't spoil it for him.) "Which is a yes. We are."

And coping, more or less.

Edited 2011-12-24 21:46 (UTC)

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Trying to Get to Sleep || [Closed]

Re: Trying to Get to Sleep || [Closed]

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Dream Sharing || [Closed]

uh I hope I am doing this right

Absolutely fine!

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