Chapter 13
Ollie was startled out of sleep by a tormented, suffering cry that
seemed to permeate the very ether around him. Quick on the
up-take, he had grabbed his bow and quiver of arrows and cocked
his ear to listen.
There it was again, from, if directions can be believed in a place
that has none, the direction of the pool.
So, muttering a curse, he set off as fast as his legs would take
him.
It was not long before he reached the pool, and while he didn't
completely understand what he saw, it seemed to confirm his worst
suspicions.
Joxer was with this girl of his in the dreamscape.
Ollie had lied when he told Joxer that there was no way to
communicate with the subject one would see in the pool. It had
not been out of selfishness or greed that he had withheld the
information, but out of pity. To spare the kid the torture of
being with the one you love for only a little while until forcibly
removed. To never really be with them, but exist only in a
dreamscape for a few hours at a time. It's like masturbation. A
quick thrill, but ultimately unsatisfying.
Not to mention what it does to the living person on the other end.
It makes them a basket case. And it was for that reason he had
stopped using it himself. He had to let Dinah get on with her
life. He couldn't screw it up anymore than he already had.
Better to just let her think him dead and move on.
But it looked like Joxer had figured out the pool's secret all on
his own. Now something was going wrong. And from the looks of
things, it was on the girl's end. But he couldn't just stand
there looking at 'em like a chump. Ollie had always been a man of
action, and the long time of solitude had not taken that away from
him.
He didn't know what would happen if he tried to intrude in their
dreamscape, but what the hell, it was worth a shot.
"Queen, you crazy son of a-" he muttered, before throwing himself,
body and soul, into the pool.
Ollie was startled out of sleep by a tormented, suffering cry that
seemed to permeate the very ether around him. Quick on the
up-take, he had grabbed his bow and quiver of arrows and cocked
his ear to listen.
There it was again, from, if directions can be believed in a place
that has none, the direction of the pool.
So, muttering a curse, he set off as fast as his legs would take
him.
It was not long before he reached the pool, and while he didn't
completely understand what he saw, it seemed to confirm his worst
suspicions.
Joxer was with this girl of his in the dreamscape.
Ollie had lied when he told Joxer that there was no way to
communicate with the subject one would see in the pool. It had
not been out of selfishness or greed that he had withheld the
information, but out of pity. To spare the kid the torture of
being with the one you love for only a little while until forcibly
removed. To never really be with them, but exist only in a
dreamscape for a few hours at a time. It's like masturbation. A
quick thrill, but ultimately unsatisfying.
Not to mention what it does to the living person on the other end.
It makes them a basket case. And it was for that reason he had
stopped using it himself. He had to let Dinah get on with her
life. He couldn't screw it up anymore than he already had.
Better to just let her think him dead and move on.
But it looked like Joxer had figured out the pool's secret all on
his own. Now something was going wrong. And from the looks of
things, it was on the girl's end. But he couldn't just stand
there looking at 'em like a chump. Ollie had always been a man of
action, and the long time of solitude had not taken that away from
him.
He didn't know what would happen if he tried to intrude in their
dreamscape, but what the hell, it was worth a shot.
"Queen, you crazy son of a-" he muttered, before throwing himself,
body and soul, into the pool.