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

[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."