[ooc] boats, dreams

Mal doesn't know how much to tell.
Of course their patron has already told them the pact does not have to be secret, but still they have their doubts. They know he has their best interests in mind, and yet...he's so disconnected from this reality that they doubt he would understand. It's a sensitive thing, to reveal that your magic is not your own.
And Mal has just woken up from a very important dream.
How much can they tell before the others ask too many questions?
They sit up on the top bunk of the ship-cabin bed, inspecting their hand. No sunburn this time, thankfully. They know he won't be visiting their dreams for another few days so there'll be less to suspect at least.
Yesterday was the first time someone asked about the jacket. Of course it would be Sunny. Honestly Mal thought its sudden appearance would have arised more suspicion from the others but they didn't seem to pay it any mind, not even to the symbol on the back. The symbol of an eye with three lashes and two curled lines above, almost like a pair of worried eyebrows. Most of the time the hood hangs down to cover it but the others are bound to have noticed it at some point or another. Yet nobody mentioned it except Sunny, yesterday.
Come to think of it there are a good number of things the others don't question. Mal summoning a motorcycle on the road. Mal "talking to someone" to get details about Counselor Walande. Even just the voice in Mal's backpack, even though that hasn't happened recently. Mal doesn't know whether to feel lucky or alone.
But Sunny cares.
Mal knows that Sunny cares. Mal needs that.
And it's hard to explain what's wrong when they don't know how much to tell.
They did tell her about the dreams, just a little. They showed her their drawing of the Voyager. But nothing about him, nothing about the shadow-figure or the fact they had been visiting another world. Just magic dreams, they said. Long story complicated but basically magic dreams.
But everything's a long story and everything's complicated and Tina's family runs the mob so Mal really has too much on their mind right now.
Absentmindedly they reach up to their shoulder and pull the hood over their head, comforted in a sense by its blur.
They climb down the ladder, check the time--about 5am--check that no one has touched their backpack, and then they pause walking past the bed again, seeing Aaron lying face-down on the bottom bunk, sprawled out on his stomach. For a moment the thought flashes that they could peek under his pillow and see the photo he'd been looking at earlier. But that, too, passes. It's not their business to pry more than they already have, and they'd expect the same from him.
Instead they reach down to pick up their bandanna and it smells like salt around their neck. They should take their pills. Instead they climb the ladder to the deck and look up at the sky.
Twinkling, twinkling down, the night is still dark and the sky as clear as ever. Mal stands there, gazing upwards, alone on deck except for the robot steering the boat and of course the starlight. In a moment of respite they take off their glasses and stand mind agape with the sense that they are only a wink away from the starry ocean in their dreams.
The ocean above the world.
Sometimes it's okay to fall.
 
Eventually Mal pulls their gaze away from the sky and climbs down to the ship's kitchen to eat some cold pasta.
What will happen when the group reaches land? On the first night Mal tried to start a discussion with the others about strategy. None of them seemed to have any ideas. "Ask nicely?" was Sunny's best suggestion on how to get the password. Mal still wasn't convinced it would work.
Will Counselor Walande recognize the symbol on their jacket? -is another question swimming through their mind.
They had asked their patron about the counselor. He said he tried to get the counselor to join him but the counselor refused. In light of this Mal doesn't know how Counselor Walande feels about him or the details of that interaction but they figure the counselor might recognize the symbol at the very least and know that powerful forces are at work.
They hope.
But they'd prefer not to resort to that.
After all it would only bring more questions.