event } a dream is a wish your traitor brain makes

[seeingyou]

WHO: All passengers currently aboard!
WHAT: Shared dreams.
WHERE: All y'all's subconscious...es.
WHEN: Nov. 7-21.
WARNINGS: If things get messy/triggering/sexually explicit, PLEASE put warnings in your comment subject lines! And if you die in the dream, you just move on to the next dream, no need to report deaths.

There's no warning - when the ship passes through the nebular cloud and Navi falls asleep, passengers on board will also find themselves dozing off at various times, and whether it’s after tucking themselves in for the night or passing out in the middle of doing something, unusual dreams will follow. Much like dreams normally behave, passengers will find themselves somewhere that may or may not be familiar, doing something that may be mundane or fantastical, but whatever and wherever the setting, dreamers will more or less accept it as reality.

Sweet dreams, passengers. Enjoy getting to know each other a little better!

Comments

[11calls]

For a moment Alex just startles, and Paul immediately puts himself between her and this new person who has arrived. Peeking out from behind him, Alex watches the woman solemnly and considers the question. She’s big, like Paul is big, and for a moment she just whispers to him even if the words don’t carry. Whatever she says, it’s clear that Alex has made a decision and Paul moves to stand guard behind her like a large guard dog. His hungry eyes don’t leave the woman, and the long slender fingers twitch a bit, the twisted sticks of them almost sounding like a clicking of bone against bone as Alex speaks.

“Okay. Do you know Markus? He’s my social worker. He’s supposed to be around here somewhere but I haven’t seen him in a while. I haven’t seen anyone but Paul.”

[ancestor]

Azem waits patiently until the girl makes a decision, then carefully sinks down to the ground a more companionable distance in front of her. She draws her knees to her chest and holds them in place with her hands, lacing her fingers together; nails painted a matte black that contrasts starkly against her pale skin. Her eyes flick up to who she can only assume is 'Paul', though aside from that brief acknowledgement her attention is wholly focused upon the child.

"I'm afraid I don't know Markus." She also hasn't the faintest idea what a 'social worker' might be, but deduces it must be a caretaker of some manner. "I can help you search for him if you like. But first... Are you warm enough, little one? Hungry? Is your companion in need of anything?"

The sound of Paul's fingers is admittedly somewhat discomfiting to her ears, and leave her fingers aching with phantom pains of sympathy.

"I am Azem, the Traveler. There is no item beyond my reach should you require it."

[11calls]

For a moment, Alex's dark eyes just open exceptionally wide behind the rim of her cheap glasses, and her brows are almost entirely in her hairline as she looks from the woman and then to Paul and then back to her. None of the other adults in her life (or kids honestly) had been able to see Tall Paul. Paul knows it too, and his extended and tall body compacts itself behind Alex more closely, almost as if it was preparing to wrap itself around Alex's tiny body like some sort of shield. There's a little low hissing from the demon in Alex's ear, but Alex just shakes her head quickly.

"You can see him too?" Her voice is low, and confused but not frightened, and Alex just watches the woman who she now knows as Azem, the Traveler. She's different than the other adults that Alex has ever met. "No one else has been able to see him." It's almost as if once she'd broken the seal on her words, Alex can't stop letting them fall from her lips. "All the other adults they say that he's a figment of my imagination but he's really not! He's there and when he does stuff they blame me. Mrs. Fisher thought I stole the strawberries, but I didn't! It was Paul because I was hungry!"

Paul makes another noise, and then Alex just looks to the woman again. "They're my favorite. Can I have some? We never get them! Cause they're so expensive. But they're so good. The real ones and not the fake ones. I don't like the fake ones, they just taste like candy and I want like it to be real!"

Then more softly: "that's why Paul stole them. It was my birthday! She didn't even care. She was mean!"

[ancestor]

The girl's surprise is unexpected, and her reaction is so endearing Azem can't help but smile. Paul is... certainly odd, not ringing quite right to her senses. His behaviour is equally as odd, though seems well within the best interests of the child.

"He is not quite as clear to my eyes as he is to my ears. I'd have to be blind and deaf to miss such an obvious presence," she explains, keeping the extent of her confusion to herself.

The girl continues speaking and Azem grows more concerned for her. The mistreatment of something as precious as a child is unfathomable to her, but all evidence points toward that being the case here.

"Every girl deserves all the strawberries she can eat on such a special day! Shall we have a belated celebration?"

Azem shifts into a kneeling position that allows her to place her palms flat against the ground, eyes closed in concentration. A strawberry bush is a simple enough creation, though to ensure the best, most natural-tasting berries it needs the best quality of soil. She runs through a checklist of all the factors she needs to take into account, then quickly gets to work. First the ground beneath them shifts into rich, fertile soil that the seed she creates is planted snugly within. The soil is then dampened by water and, finally, Azem lifts one hand to act as a makeshift sun, setting it aglow with a light to mimic the rays of the sun.

It takes a few short minutes for the seed to sprout and grow into a large, sprawling bush heavy with perfectly ripened strawberries. Pleased with her work, Azem turns her attention back to the child and her eerie protector, smiling proudly.

"Is there aught else you would like? You needn't limit yourself, little one!"

[11calls]

Alex just stares, watching with a wide-eyed fascination as the plant just blooms into existence. With a voice that’s a hushed awe, Alex can’t help but to ask. “Wow! Do you have magic? I keep wanting magic to be real, but they tell me that it’s bad and the devil.” Her voice drops lowly as she mentions the devil, and there’s fear in it because Alex’s demonic phobia started young, and it’s not something that’s not without cause even if it changes when she’s an adult and Alex has the understanding of what all this is and what it could be and what it means for her. But for now it’s a childish fear that Alex can’t help.

That said, she does reach out and take one of the strawberries from the bush and pops it into her mouth. Inhaling it almost without chewing it, and definitely around a mouth that is way too full for anything like politeness, Alex adds: “oh my gawd these are so good. It’s like a strawberry from a book or a movie!” The first one is followed by a snatch of another one while Paul hisses something behind her.

“I am not going to make myself sick eating like it!” There’s a crossness in her voice as she speaks to her friend. “Fruits are healthy for you it’s not like I’m eating cake!”

Which of course gives her an idea and she beams at the woman. “Can I have cake?”

[ancestor]

While she's able to brush aside most everything else odd about this situation, the girl's commentary about magic brings her mind to a sudden, jarring stop.

"I'm— What?" She glances between the child and the creature by her side. "Who are 'they'? I've never heard of a more preposterous thing in all my life! Magic is certainly real, and it is neither good nor bad—it is what you make of it."

It bothers her to think that this little girl has been told such horrible things, but Azem does her best to remain upbeat and cheerful, not wishing for her to feel as though she's done something wrong. It isn't too difficult when treated to the sight of her shoveling her mouth full of strawberries (it makes her happy to know her aether brings both delight and sustenance to a child), nor the crossness in her tone as defends herself against her companion's hissed words.

"The fruit may be healthy, little one, but take care to chew well and not eat too much too quickly—that can certainly upset a stomach." The question brings a smile to her face once more. She nods, sitting up straight and listening attentively. "What sort of cake would you like?"

[11calls]

Alex just gets quiet for a moment, and Paul whispers something to her again. It’s a sort of protective instinct for the both of them, honestly not wanting to draw any more ire from an adult even if Azem hadn’t been being mean or anything! But sometimes adults were adults. And sometimes adults weren’t good.

As a concession to both Paul and Azem, the next strawberry that she picks is nibbled at delicately, in what she thinks are lady-like manners. At her last home the mother there liked in when Alex had lady-like manners, so she’s hoping that the same sort of thing applies. It would be nice if it did, but Alex doesn’t know for sure.

A little uncertainly, but extremely hopefully Alex just asks: “can it be chocolate with rainbow sprinkles? I love rainbow sprinkles!”

[ancestor]

Azem watches for a moment until realizing that must be discomfiting, instead choosing to occupy herself by eating a few of the strawberries she made. Eating things created of her own aether never tastes quite as satisfying as something made by another (and no creation ever tastes as good as food grown from the earth), but it's still good enough. At the very least it gives her something to busy her hands with, but even with the tactile stimulation it's still difficult to keep focused on the now.

It has been so long since she last met a child, with the world the way it was. Had things been different, she could have...

...But there is no changing what was done. Instead she can do what she can here—wherever here is—and find satisfaction in that.

"Would a chocolate cake with a rainbow of rainbow sprinkles be to your liking?"

[11calls]

“Oh yes please! Can you do that? I didn’t know you could do that!” Any caution that Alex might have had is thrown to the wind along with the wideness of her grin and the brightness in her dark eyes. Amazement shines through her, because it was something that is beyond her imagining that sprinkles can be used to make things. Even in the limited movies and television that Alex watched, that didn’t seem to be something possible outside of Disney movies when there was magic involved.

That thought leads to another one, and Alex just peers up at her curiously. “Are you my fairy godmother. You seem like a fairy godmother!” The wonder is there in her voice because having a fairy godmother wasn’t something that Alex had ever dreamed of—she hasn’t needed to dream of it not really when she has Paul.

Speaking of Paul, he’s hissing like an angry cat, and no longer wrapped around her in protection mode. Instead he stalks back and forth behind her, prowling aggressively as he glares at this interloper.

“Stop it Paul!” Alex just shouts. “She’s not hurting me! Stop right this second!”

[ancestor]

"If I can conceptualize it then I can create it," she explains. There is much more to creation than that, but Azem sees no need to elaborate upon the complexities and limitations at the moment. "Would you like a layer of filling in your cake?"

The concept she begins building in her mind crumbles as the girl speaks again, striking her with a term she has never heard before and can only guess the meaning of. "I am not of the fae folk, nor a god." Azem is careful to keep her expression unaffected. "Nor am I a mother... Though I had hoped to become one someday."

Paul's hissing and posturing hasn't bothered Azem in the least (he is nothing compared to the horrors she's seen these past decades), however the child's distressed shouts are another thing entirely. She glares at the creature's form, wholly unimpressed.

"Tell me, Paul. Are you meant to protect her, or confine her?" Her eyes narrow. "Hiss once for the former and twice for the latter."

[11calls]

As much as Alex likes this woman (and she does, even if she doesn't seem to be aware of what a fairy godmother is!) Paul is Paul and Paul is her friend. More than that, Paul is the only friend that she's had for as long as Alex can remember. A world without Paul, one where he leaves or is chased away by this woman isn't a world that Alex Reagan can even consider living in so, she immediately just glares at the woman, her arms crossed over her chest as she draws herself up to every bit of her diminutive height.

"Don't talk to Paul like that!" Her voice is a shout, threaded through with angry tears that well up without Alex meaning them to. She doesn't want to make this woman upset (because upset adults are bad and Alex knows it) but she can't let Paul go undefended, especially when he would never do that to her.

"He's my friend and he protects me! He keeps the bad people away! He just doesn't know you!"

And then Paul does a particularly good (especially for a child like Alex who so desperately wants to believe) show of slinking back and looking hurt and contrite behind her.

[ancestor]

Upsetting the child even further is the last thing Azem ever wanted, and for all that Paul puts on a skillful show of guilt she has no need for exaggerations or falsehoods; her expression falters, shifting from steely determination to shame. She has never been overly skilled at restraining her emotions, and while her honesty has served her well enough over the years it has also gotten her into more than her fair share of trouble.

"My apologies, little one." Paul receives no such apology, because Azem holds no remorse for him. "I will try to keep my tone in check."

With that said, however, she still refuses to keep her concerns to herself. She just needs to approach the matter in a different way—

"Do you believe everyone to be bad?"

[11calls]

“I’m trying not too.” Alex’s voice is soft. “There are some good people. Markus is good. He wants to help me. But it’s his job and I know he has a lot of other kids to deal with too. The Reagan’s seem nice. Danny is a police officer and Alice teaches kindergarten. She’s gonna teach me to read she says.”

Alex’s voice gets a little softer. “I think I’m too stupid to learn to read though. None of the other foster parents tried to help. One taught me a little on the piano before Paul...” Alex’s voice drops a bit. “He did a bad thing. Paul was worried that her husband would hurt me but he didn’t!”

[ancestor]

"Did you know," she begins, taking on the tone of a teacher, "That by nature people are inherently good? We wouldn't have survived long as a species without the desire to work together and help each other."

Azem offers the girl a small, lopsided smile. While she doesn't truly comprehend what a bad person may be like she is not so ignorant as to dismiss a child's concerns.

"One day you will find the number of good far outnumber the bad. There will be more Markuses and Dannys and Alices and people who wish to keep you safe, so long as you are brave enough to let them help you."

As for the rest... Her gaze flits briefly to Paul, suspicious. If the piano man truly had meant to hurt this child (something she cannot even fathom, for who could ever dream of doing such a thing?) then Azem cannot fault the creature whatever actions he took. Still, she doubts his intentions.

"You're far from stupid. Learning to read is a difficult thing that takes years of practice. Anyone can learn it if given the opportunity, which is something you haven't been given yet." Being shuttled around from parent to parent is not the ideal environment for a child to learn.

"Now, why don't you tell me what a police officer and a kindergarten is while I make you your cake? I've never heard of those things before."