Planeside 2

[Fenric]

[Cleo's Dream]

Keiko sniffles as the dream-intensified emotions fade.

No... I need it fixed. I'm broken, Cleo, and I can't help but think this is related, and I'm afraid that I'm going to stay that way forever unless this gets fixed.

She sits back in a more normal posture

I... I don't know. I was only sixteen: I hadn't even had my first heat yet, and the whole concept of something like that happening was something I'd only even heard in distant and vague terms. Why is the most terrifying thing something I knew... and still know... so very little about?

She thinks back to the episode: when not in the moment, it certainly qualified as being abstract and devoid of any detail. She ponders when the dreams started

Almost every night since I got turned mortal except times when I've been too drunk, or too tired... though maybe I just don't remember.

her ears fold and she looks down

It's a big part of why I started drinking so much.

Well... she's up for a diagnosis of PTSD or there's some Nexus Weirdness(tm) going on... and one of those isn't as much fun as the other.

[Recaiden]

[Cleo's Dream]

Cleo twirls and lays down, resting her head in Keiko's lap and looking up at the fox. Silly? Of course.

"We'll put you back together, then. As to why? Well, people are afraid of things they don't understand. Wait, wait. Still? Is your shadow kingdom one of those silly places where people aren't taught how their own bodies work? I have a lot to blame my parents for, but at least that's not one of them. Do you still-actually, with the other dimension, I'm not sure I have any idea how your bodies work. But you know, you're analogous to the vulpans in the physical world, right? Right."

She sighs, and seriously considers sitting back up to better look glum.

"Trying to get too drunk to remember it? You know that's no good. Maybe it would help to hear in close and specific terms. And I can only imagine how being murdered can mess up someone's head. Much less than what you've gone through has driven people well, bad places. Or maybe there's something weirder afoot. Are you sure your body's finished growing up?"

[Fenric]

[Cleo's Dream]

Keiko laughs softly

I don't think the others are particularly backwards... I mean... I know the textbook-level details, sure. It's just... I think everyone kinda forgot that I didn't get a chance to grow up the first time - it was a really long time ago. And yeah, things work the same here as they do there. I mean, I'm sure there are some details or other that are technically different, but you can't tell as long as you're in one place or the other and I can't even imagine trying to watch one from the other or something... that would be weird.

She puzzles over that rather pointless train of thought long enough to get rather distracted from the original issue

Not so much to forget - I didn't actually remember - but to not dream anymore. It was getting to the point I hardly wanted to sleep anymore, and now...

She frowns and shakes her head to clear the feeling. Doesn't really help.

I think so. My third cycle is coming up soon... but... I dunno, how do I answer that question? Things have changed so much since I got turned mortal, and I just... don't know.

At the very least there is certainly some serious taking for granted going on with the family.

[Recaiden]

[Cleo's Dream]

A wave crashes over the beach, and when it recedes, it's turned into the main room of the Dancing Fox.

"You mean there as they do here. Well, that's good then. And no more drinking yourself senseless, alright? That's not going to fix anything."

Then she does sit up, and flips over to come to sitting facing Keiko. Quite an unlikely maneuver, really.

"I guess you'll have to grow up pretty fast now? That's...maybe too bad. Could it help to see some things I remember and imagine? Nothing horrible about it, I can say. Oh! How was it that you became mortal again; I've never heard that from you. Could the nightmares be part of that?"

[Fenric]

[Cleo's Dream]

Keiko nods contritely

Yeah... I will.. er... won't... er... you know what I mean.

Then she nods again

Sure: I'll try anything. And I was with this new worshipper... I don't remember his name, actually, went by "Black Coated Man". There was this "planeswalker" who was a real jerk: rude, and disrespectful, and mean. Anyway, he wanted help dealing with this guy, and I was there so I went with him. I might have gotten a bit carried away... worshipper or not, we aren't supposed to use too much power outside of a temple unless threatened directly, and I think I used the wrong spell to heal him one time.

That's one way of putting it.

Anyway, I didn't really notice anything until after we got back... I couldn't go straight home like I was used to and had to use a spell. And then that night.. um..

Her ears fold down in classic vulpine embarrassment

I started my first season ever. It's not nearly as messy as with humans, and isn't even for the same reasons... but it still sucks to be caught by surprise. That was kinda unarguable proof, and the main comment from my family was that they were surprised that it had taken me so long. I was too embarrassed to remind them it was actually my first time, and they didn't remember, and it was ... a very weird and uncomfortable week.

[Recaiden]

[Cleo's Dream]

"Thanks."

The inn creeps back in time, and fills with vague blurry forgotten people, and two in-focus ones come in. A dark-eyed man with flowing locks of black hair and a woman in shining armor who-oh, no. That whole scene is gone, and the dream shifts to a dark tower, one little window watching a sleepy village. There's a dream-Cleo picking her way up a staircase, while the real one who's been speaking with Keiko is looking at the ground, face bright red.

"So you used up all the power you had to be a, okay. I remember hearing that general idea. Sounds pretty normal. Planeswalkers can be real trouble though. Gods and demigods, right? Maybe you were cursed to not sleep easy again."

She presses a hand to her forehead.

"So this is like with your sister's suitor? I'm sure they'd have helped if you asked. But no matter. I'm sure by now you've figured it out. You said that then, the last two? times, was when you did feel something for people? Your body finally gets to it?"

[Fenric]

[Cleo's Dream]

Keiko hmms

He was a pain in the butt, and I burned up a lot of power fighting him, but in the end I don't think he would have been able to stick me with anything. Certainly not while I was still a full-blown Messenger: Tammy would have noticed. We may bicker sometimes, but she's my big sister and she is very protective of me.

There's quite a bit of pride in her voice: Keiko loves her big sister

But maybe she couldn't...

Ewww, no: he was just one of Tammy's followers! I shouldn't have gone out to the Hunting Grounds with him - I should have got one of the priests or somebody, but I got carried away 'cause the Hunting Grounds is fun and as long as I used my own power it wasn't a big deal. But this was a worshipper and I used Tammy's power and that's what got me in trouble.

And yeah: maturity is not my strong point, I know. There's a lot that might have been better if I'd said something sooner... I was just too embarrassed.

Fortunately, Keiko is still too distracted and embarrassed to remember that she has only told that to Arlem, not Cleo . She nods

Yes, those two times are the only times I've really been ... excited. I've recognized lots of times I really think I should have been, but there's... just... nothing. And that's embarrassing in its own right! I see my sisters, or Katrina, or Caroline and Steven, or Jinkei...

She can't help but chuckle and grin

Maybe that's it: Jinkei used up all the available libido and there wasn't any left for me!

Her attention turns to the scene

So... what are we watching?

[Recaiden]

[Cleo's Dream]

Cleo frowns. It was worth a thought. But apparently, no connection.

"That's good of her. And I'm sure she'll be looking out for you even now."

"You think I haven't done the same? I just had to move this dream on account of being too embarrassed. Or been inactive."

But embarrassment can also distract people from Cleo reading the narration. So that helps her.

"Well, it's possible you've just never found what excites you, and it's not-"

Cleo has to chuckle along. It's a distressingly possible idea.

"This is me, a good while ago, though not as long as what is was about to be. After ARCANUS closed down again, but before the war with the glass vampires started. And I am going to see Vaan. This was nothing serious. I was never going to stay here too long, and until the war, they were never going to leave."

Dream-Cleo knocks on a door at the top of the stairway, which opens itself a little while later. She's greeted warmly by an elf of thoroughly ambiguous gender and no resemblance at all to the people in the Nexus's desert. The sound is washed out, murmuring, nothing that can be resolved into words. But the two of them can be seen seated across a chess-board, playing a game. Dream-Cleo plays quite poorly.

[Fenric]

[Cleo's Dream]

Keiko is sympathetic. As mentioned elsewhere, Strategy and Keiko are not on speaking terms.

Ooooh, chess! I suck at chess. Noriko won't even play with me anymore 'cause she says I'm too boring.

[Recaiden]

[Cleo's Dream]

"As you can see, I'm not so good either. Maybe we'd be good competition for each other."

Dream-Cleo swiftly loses the game, tipping over a king a little bit before it becomes inevitable. She says something cheery to dream-Vaan, both laugh, and they respond with a clear 'I'm better'. In the dream, she goes to the window and looks down outside, voicing some wistful complaint. Vaan comes and leans on her shoulder. 'We aren't heroes.' A moment passes, and then dream-Cleo turns and stands on her tip-toes for a kiss.

Cleo watches Keiko carefully for any discomfort as the dream progresses quickly, casually, with no tendency of its own to shatter.

[Fenric]

[Cleo's Dream]

Keiko's tails indeed do flick just a bit in classically agitated fashion, and her ears do stand up just a little more straight. She is certainly well in control of it, but she can't help a little bit of a reaction. She tries to diffuse that in standard immature fashion!

Elf kisses! Ewww!

[Recaiden]

[Cleo's Dream]

Well handled. Cleo laughs and nods.
"They're not so bad. And I hadn't quite learned to be a dragon at this point."

Vaan asks something quiet, to which Dream-Cleo responds with an excited 'yes', quickly forgetting whatever she was brooding over at the windowsill. Back in this time she didn't have a cape to take off. What sex the elf is becomes very clearly revealed to any watchers, but remains unimportant to the narrative of the dream.

"Something to notice is that it's not always, well, a big deal. No more important to our relationship than the games of chess. Though it very well could have been. If it had all happened earlier...in the long run, that would have been a shame."

[Fenric]

[Cleo' s Dream]

Keiko nods thoughtfully

Yeah... It makes a lot of sense, actually.

Then she frowns.

We aren't alone. Or I'm not. Wait...

The frown progresses to a snarl

He's in my head! That ... All this time... He... Stupid F*#%#!! Nexus! I'm keeping him alive now?!?!

Keiko rapidly dissolves onto incomprehensible snarling.

[Recaiden]

[Someone's Dream]

Cleo waves the memory away. But the elf doesn't fade into vagueness along with the tower and dream-Cleo. Just stands there, dressed for battle with the glass vampires, eyes stormy.

"Vaan. You're just a dream of a memory. Go away." They don't.

It would be frightening enough to have a dream go out of control like that. And something's happening to Keiko. Her killer, here, following along all this time? Cleo draws her knife, pulls the cord, starts its motor running. In a dream, the world's tiniest triangular chainsaw is as real as she is, and much more dangerous than such a silly thing could be in a physical world. Even if she had dreamt that she had the Kusanagi, it wouldn't be of much use; it's only a dream, after all.

"...Gods are stupid and I'm glad we never had any."

"TENJIN! Or whatever you are in his guise. This is my domain. You will come out and face me, and leave her alone."

[Fenric]

[A dream]

A cold voice, imperious and haughty but bereft of the divine power it once had, echoes through the very fabric of the dream.

Awake again at last: I must thank you both... well, you plus that meddling spider. Your domain, Cleosepha? Really now?

Storm clouds begin to build over the ocean

Do you understand what happens when you bind yourself to one like Keiko? When you join your dream to hers? What happens to you if she loses control?

Keiko looks at the gathering clouds in abject horror, seeing something besides what is there.

I've quietly invaded her mind for nearly two years now, and her subconscious is my domain now, not yours.

There is a tremendous tugging, pulling, calling... Keiko begins to distort

So yes, dear Cleo: let's do play.

[Recaiden]

[A dream]

"Yeah, I know. Things get weird, and a little while later, we wake up." Cleo actually isn't confident at all that it will work that way, but she tries to sound like she is.

The wind rises, picking up to quite quick, lifting up above them, blowing back the clouds as well as it can.

"Keep yourself together, Keiko. This is like the dream of the Hu, we get out of that just fine. Just being angry won't get rid of him."

Vaan opens an umbrella and steps over to be able to cover them all with it.
"Has it finally worked? Hmm. I knew I could do it. But not how I expected."

[Fenric]

[A Dream]

Keiko does quite an admirable job of getting herself back together: first resolving back to her usual self, then bursting into dancing black flames.

Of all the miserable little turds to go creeping into my head, why did it have to be the whiny loser spirit of that dead idiot?!

She glares, then a thought dawns on her and she smirks

There's a really severe weakness about gods like him... Cleo dearest: you were talking about making me forget. Can you make me forget his name?

[Recaiden]

[A Dream]

"That's my nine-tailed dragon. Good job."

Cleo grins and nods.

"Of course I can." The pupils of her eyes bleed away, as the whole orbs turn the color of her speech, and she closes her free hand into a fist. "Rejection of Understanding."

As it happens, Cleo isn't actually good at this. She can take away knowledge of Tenjin's name...but not with any precision. Some other memories are going with it. Maybe the identities of Keiko's sisters, maybe her entire awareness of Tenjin, maybe the names of every god she knows, or something even stranger. She opens her hand again and there's a little clay lightning-bolt figurine there, tying the memories up quite securely. It's not so easy as smashing the thing to put them back in someone's head.

[Fenric]

[A Dream]

Keiko abruptly relaxes, the flames dying away.

What were we talking about, Cleo darling?

The effect on the erstwhile Celestial God of Fire and Thunder, however, is dramatic: the noise of the wind and storm is joined by the wailing of a lost soul as his only tie to continued existence is subsumed into the figurine in Cleo's hand. A terrible vortex swirls out from the lightningbolt as the very essence of the dead god is sucked into the statuette: rage and despair and uttermost terror mingle in the wordless screaming.

Keiko looks on, baffled and uncertain.

Um... what is that?

[Recaiden]

[A Dream]

"Uhm, we were talking about there's a lot of parts to a romantic relationship, of which sex is only one, and not even a huge part, and-"

Vaan folds up the umbrella and waves, before strolling off towards the shore.

"Why are you still here? You're imaginary, aren't you?"

"The salt is out of the way."

Cleo looks down at the tiny storm in her hand.

"Uh-huh...anyway, this is a, it's a box for things neither man nor fox were meant to know. Don't try to touch it."

[Fenric]

[A Dream]

Keiko shudders at the thing: something about it is deeply disturbing

I don't like it... I think you should throw it into the ocean.

[Recaiden]

[A Dream]

Cleo shakes her head briskly.

"I wouldn't do that. Nothing deserves to be lost under the sea. And someone might fish it up. I have to keep it secure."

She does try to wrap the thing up in her cape, out of sight.

[Fenric]

[A Dream]

Keiko nods

Yeah... I guess that makes sense. Don't touch it too much, though... that thing gives me the creeps.

She looks around distractedly, as if trying to remember something

We were going to get spider-silk... and then...

And then her ears fold flat in the vulpine equivalent of a serious blush.

[Recaiden]

[A Dream]

Cleo steps up to Keiko and puts an arm around her.
"And then you wanted to be chased, and caught, and fed. Right now, if you've forgotten, we're both asleep in your bed."

[Fenric]

[A Dream]

Keiko grins shyly

Well... that is how our courtship goes, you know. The pair bond is established through sharing food, and bed, and ... um ...

She grins awkwardly

well... both meanings of "sleeping together", right?

[Recaiden]

[A Dream]

"Right."

Cleo has to respond to the grin with another grin, right?

"No hurry on getting to the other meaning."

[Fenric]

[A Dream]

Keiko's nine tails wave happily

No... no hurry. But I am so very happy with you, Cleo.

But then she feels the swell of familiar power coming their way

Uh... why is Noriko attacking us?

But how does the dream world interact with a potent blast of Darkness from an enraged Messenger?

[Recaiden]

[A Dream]

"What?"

Cleo half-jumps, hoping to put distance between herself and Keiko on the one side and the container on the other side.

Darkness falls across the dream, such that even Keiko couldn't see an inch in front of her face.
The lightning bolt chills, cracks, and lightly explodes into several chunks. Now, this won't send memories and monsters rushing back to Keiko's head. It's very stable. Each chunk has part of her memories, part of Tenjin. Probably one letter of his name apiece. And it would take a miracle for anyone to find them all again in this. If you hear a splash from one landing in the ocean, well, that's probably because it did.

[Fenric]

[A Dream]

Keiko whipmers: to her, the darkness is intolerably bright. But it's just a dream and it goes away as quickly as it came

Oh... she was after that thing. Sorry, Cleo: I did say that they were really protective of me.

[Recaiden]

[A Dream]

"Oh. Well, they got it."

Cleo spends a long while blinking her eyes, hoping to see something again, and find the tattered remains of her cloak, one lone piece of the container trapped in it. T is for Tenjin.

"Let's go to the part of sleep where we stop dreaming, and then wake up. Sound good to you?"