Dreams of Home

[Vega]

50th Ashan, 717

Vega was kneeling in front of the fire, stirring the stew that was in the pot suspended there. The small house was warm and she was dreaming of a home unlike any she had ever had. Stone walls and a chimney, beds and somewhere, she was fairly sure, there were children. Vega frowned slightly and shook her head.

Was that right? The young woman had dreamed of such things before, but not often and it certainly wasn't something which she craved. However, her dreaming mind accepted it and she dished out two bowls of the stew, like she had in a camp in Desnind so long ago. "I did what you said. I seasoned and seared the meat first. It does taste much better you know. You were right." Arlo was sitting at the dining room table. "Stop swinging your legs, you look twelve. I've told you before, haven't I?" Vega frowned, looking around with some confusion on her face.

"Was the tree in the garden?"

She shrugged and went back to it, cutting thick slices of bread and putting them on the table between them before sitting down and motioning for him to eat. "Yours is still better, but I think mine's improving, you know. I think." A small, multicoloured dragon landed on the table and Vega fed it absently. "Look, isn't it pretty? It's like my eyes when I'm confused." Realising how that sounded, Vega gave a grin. "Self praise is not a recommendation, I know." The tiny dragon stretched out its wings and Vega held a piece of bread up; it spewed out some fire and she held the bread for toasting. "My father always says that. Self praise, Eva. But then he also says beggars can't be choosers and speak the truth." Her grin was friendly and not at all anything other than teasing when she considered. "And keeping in mind that I travel with you when I'm awake, I'm a beggar when it comes to compliments, and I do think that Biqaj eyes are pretty." She started to feel awareness falling in on her, but it was a slow and somewhat difficult process.

"It's a strange thing to dream about, isn't it?" Half way between lucid and not she looked at Arlo with some confusion. "This house, I mean. When I was taken through the Veil, Kosumi told me that I could still dream with you. I wouldn't have liked it if I couldn't." She continued to butter her toast, then took a bite, thoughtfully.

It was a good bit, maybe two of silence between them as Vega chewed her toast and worked things through in her head. Then, she looked at Arlo and as deep a frown as she had ever worn crossed her face. Not of anger, though, although there had been plenty of those in the time they'd known each other. No, this was concentration.

Then, the frown cleared and Vega smiled. "Arlo? Am I dreaming?"

[Arlo Creede]

It was a strange dream for Vega to be having, Arlo thought as he sat at the table and observed her. It wasn't his dream and if it had been, if he'd been dreaming of home it would have been his own mother at the stove. But it wasn't hers either, not that he could reason it would be. From all she'd told him she'd grown up aboard ship, and didn't care much for the roof and walls that some people referred to as hearth and home.

If she imagined him swinging his heels then he would be. Though in that case it would require a chair greatly out of proportion to himself and his reasonably long legs. "Sorry," he said with a grin and took a spoonful of the stew that she'd handed him. Much better, he told her. Because surely in her dreams she was a more capable cook than when she was awake.

And sure, the tree was still there. Why wouldn't it be, his expression implied? The little dragon was curious, and a nice touch. If he had something like that to cook with he'd rarely have to light a fire. But the imagery of her dream was a mixed bag of things that didn't quite fit. Dreams often were that, of course. But this one seemed more disconnected than her usual. Maybe she was conflicted about something while awake? Something she hadn't told him about but that conflict was playing havoc on her sleeping imagination.

But then all of it was forgotten when Vega appeared to reference what was going on, as an actual dream. He hadn't told her it was, or let it slip. Arlo had slipped once, had needed to repair the damage and had been exceedingly careful since then not to repeat the mistake. It just wasn't done. Not ever. He frowned, all the more curious then. "Who's Kosumi?" he asked, round another bite of his stew.

Maybe, the name was one she'd picked up somewhere along the way, and her references to the veil and dreams were only remnants of a conversation they'd once had where he'd explained Emea to her. Possible, very possible, she was dreaming about dreaming. That would be a first, Arlo thought.

Was it possible though that somehow she'd become lucid in her dream? At least in part? He guessed, maybe, that some dreamers at least a rare few, might come in time to become so without guidance. But if they could, well it would be the first he'd heard of it. More likely, someone had found her in her dreams and guided her. Still, she might only be dreaming about dreaming and Arlo wasn't about to tell her different.

"I dunno. Do you think you are? Or do you think it's something more?" he asked. "I guess there's one way to find out." If she was lucid dreaming, she might not be able to alter him, but it was her dream after all. "See that pot over there?" he said, pointing to the kettle she'd got the stew from. "How 'bout you give it a stir, without so much as getting up to take hold of the spoon," Arlo suggested.

[Vega]

"Hmm? Oh he escorted me through the veil." Vega replied when Arlo asked who Kosumi was. "He was nice. Old, he said he was over sixty and he looked like a dried prune, but he was nice. I told him about you." Putting her spoon down in her bowl, Vega smiled at him. "I might have even been vaguely nice about you. He seemed to be a bit like someone's grandfather, you know. I wouldn't want to upset him by tellin' him what you're really like."

But then, she wondered if she was dreaming and Arlo made a suggestion. She looked at the pot and frowned, considering that for a moment and concentrating, really hard. Nothing happened, so she turned back to Arlo. "Well, it's not that, then, is it." She didn't notice, of course, that as soon as she stopped trying too hard and instead concentrated on him and talking about what was going on, the spoon lifted and started to stir. Not a lot and not for long, but it did.

"It's weird, though." Petting the tiny dragon, Vega considered her options. "Ok, so I had this dream where there was this old guy. He took me for a walk, escorting he called it. Told me it was gonna be his last one, cos he's old and there are dangers." She smiled at Arlo with a somewhat ironic glance. "'Yeah, I know,' was my reply. Didn't tell him about the skeeterwampulus, though. But still," She then described a very clear story of walking down a path, staying on the path and there were all sorts of things should she step off. "A bunch of fish swam past once that was well weird."

Then, she explained, they stood in front of this curtain thing. "It was the veil, he said. I had to hold on to his hand really tight and we walked through. It was cold, really cold." Like the ocean in a cylus morning, she recalled, "But it was like silk, too. Soft and inviting, comfortable. Familiar."

Glancing back at the spoon, it started to move as she considered why it hadn't and Vega frowned slightly. "It's moving now. What does that mean?"

[Arlo Creede]

So, if dreamwalking was what Vega was doing, then it was someone else who'd found and initiated her, and not him. Somehow, Arlo felt he ought to be put out about it. Even vaguely insulted. But after all, she hadn't asked him. And if she had, he wasn't experienced enough to do it anyway. Still. Principle of the thing.

Then again, dreamwalkers walked in and out of others' dreams all the time. Sometimes, like himself, without exactly meaning to. She hadn't mentioned Jesine however. So somehow he thought that maybe the older dreamwalker hadn't been a follower himself, and hadn't suggested that she do the same. It wasn't necessary after all.

He sat back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest and watched her concentrate on the spoon in the pot. Considering the expression on her face, the lift of her chin, he imagined it wouldn't go quite as well as she wanted. And yet predictably when she stopped straining so hard and turned away, Arlo smiled. There it went.

By now, he knew that she wasn't just dreaming. At least, not in the way she'd always done before. But Arlo still couldn't tell her. She had to work it out herself. But she was as lucid as he was, only confused about how it had come to be. He didn't know how the fish figured in the experience. But something she said warranted an additional warning. New dreamwalkers could suffer from an over-abundance of confidence and take chances they shouldn't. He knew that better than most.

"Whoever he was, he was right. There's plenty of dangers. And I'm not talking about skeeterwampulus. There might be more risks for a follower of Jesine, maybe," he considered, "But that doesn't mean there won't be any for you. You can learn to expel them though, protect yourself and your dreams, and in time, protect others who're with you."

Finally, he laughed when she finally noticed that the spoon was moving. "It means that you made it happen Vega. But in the moment, you were trying too hard. It wasn't necessary, and trying to hard was a distraction in itself. It was still on your mind when you stopped overdoing it..." he explained, then paused for a trill or so to find a better way to explain.

"Imagination is one of your most valuable tools in Emea, whether you follow Jesine or not. You don't need to strain or focus so hard. Did you ever throw a copper nel into a well when you were a child, or wish on the first star that you saw at night?" he asked. "It's a little like that...Wishing, seeing it happen, imagining it coming true," he explained.

And in order to show her what he meant, Arlo regarded his bowl of stew once more. "It's a little thick. I think I might do better with a fork." And as soon as he said it and glanced at his right hand, a fork appeared.

[Vega]

"Don't get that look on your face with me, sunshine." Vega smiled as she said it. "He was just there. One minute I was talking to my Papa, the next he was there. Besides, it's probably not true, is it? I mean, if I was dreamwalking, I'd know." That she was lucid enough to know what dreamwalking was didn't seem to impact on Vega for a moment or two. When he gave her his warning, she didn't roll her eyes, but she wanted to. "I know, remember? Never mind the skeeterwampulus, there were those shadow things. Besides, I'm not the one that gets into trouble all the time. That's us." She shot a cheeky grin at him but then added, with a much more serious look. "I'll be careful, I promise."

But then, once she knew that she was, actually, dreamwalking, Vega could not hide her delight. "Really? So I didn't just dream of some crazy old bloke?" With a considered look upon her face, she added, "Or, I did and he took me through the Veil? Wow. He said that I could walk amongst the dreams of others, within the city I am in." She looked around the room though and shrugged slightly. "I think I'll stay here with you for a bit if that's alright? It's all a bit too much new stuff otherwise."

Vega could not help but grin as he got a fork from nowhere. "Got to diss the cooking, haven't you?" She considered it for a moment then sat back in her chair and reached for her mug of tea. It hadn't been a mug of tea a few moments ago, it had been a glass of water, but mugs of tea she knew, she understood and they were familiar. So she didn't have to worry about doing something impossible, just doing something very, very familiar.

As she sipped the tea, Vega couldn't help but smile with delight. "So, you don't know Kosumi, then? There isn't like, a club you joined? He didn't mention Jesine at all, no." Wrapping her hands around the cup, Vega considered. "So, what does this mean for us, then? I mean, will you show me how to use it properly and stuff? Will I still dream?" She glanced at the tea and said, with an entirely straight face

"Would it be bad if I made myself a cup of warm whiskey, Arlo?"

[Arlo Creede]

"You could have asked, is all I'm saying." Someone else had sought her out without her having known and guided her. She hadn't asked and she probably hadn't thought of asking. And if she had, he didn't have the experience anyway. But again it was the principle.

Then again, Arlo was seventeen and so tended to be contrary as often as he wasn't. Still, there was an argument to be made. "I'd say that its you getting me into trouble, rather than us together," he countered and grinned a little. They both knew that the scales tended to lean the other way at least as often if not more.

He guessed that it was exactly what happened though. She hadn't dreamed up a crazy old man, but a dreamwalker had found her. Either mindfully or by happenstance. And of course it was alright, he told her. Better to practice with someone she knew till she was more comfortable with moving about in Emea. All the fewer mistakes that she'd make. He'd made plenty in the beginning. "You can find others nearby where you are physically," Arlo confirmed.

And in the meantime he'd seemed to have grown stronger and his range was improving. "I s'pose its Jesine's influence, her blessing," Arlo considered. "But I'm sensing now that I could seek out the dreams of those I know, even should they be sleeping half of Idalos away." So he watched her dream up a cup of tea for herself and smiled, before shaking his head. "I don't know him. Never heard of him."

And of course she'd dream, he told her. Just as often as she ever had before. The difference was that she could mindfully interact with her dreams now. She could shape them, change them to her liking, alter their course as it pleased her. "I'll help you," Arlo promised. "If you'd rather whiskey, make it whiskey." It was really just as simple as that.

"Just remember that time, space, distance, none of them have any meaning in Emea. At least not in the way we understand them. Not physicality either. But," he warned her then. "You should never tell anyone that they're dreaming. Not ever. It's not just a set of rules put in place by Jesine, though surely she can give you a good comeuppance for doing it. But it's more than that. You tell them they're dreaming, you could do them real harm."

And just about then was when Lyova appeared, a brilliant, teardrop shaped patch of blue light hovering round the crown of Arlo's hat. "You're a dreamwalker now!" the tiny fairy exclaimed happily. "Now we can go on all kinds of adventures together."

[Vega]

"I did ask you lumbering oaf." Least, that was how she remembered it. "After that dream where I dreamed about that bloke who said he stabbed Xiur, an' we talked in the Inn." Granted she hadn't actually asked, but she'd as good as. "Besides, you could have offered." That was an undeniable truth too. "You're the one with all the power here, aren't you?" Vivid green eyes narrowed at him. "Especially when I dream that you're the boss. Pah." The last was to his suggestion that she got him into trouble, more than the other way around or even them together.

"Who fell down the hole? Wasn't me. Who went running off after lost girls in Desnind? Us. You name me one, just one bit of trouble wot we have gotten into because of me, Arlo Creede?" She knew he couldn't so he'd ignore the question she thought. Boys.

He could find people half way around Idalos? "Show off." Vega grinned. But then her gaze turned serious and she wondered aloud what popped in her head. "So, could you find my father? I mean, you've seen my dream of him or do you have to know him properly?" It would be nice to be able to speak to him, she explained and she rather believed that he was a dreamwalker himself. But it didn't really matter, if he couldn't. She'd get there, she was sure. Or, more likely, her father would and he'd come visit her. "Maybe he already does, an' I just didn't know because I wasn't a Dreamwalker then." It was entirely possible as far as Vega was concerned.

Don't tell anyone they're dreaming? She nodded her head and then a frown crossed her forehead. "Did you ever do that to me?" She couldn't remember it if he had and yet, there was a vague feeling of something familiar tickling her consciousness. Which was completely and utterly forgotten as a small blue teardrop of Lyova appeared and Vega let out a squeal of delight. "Oh it's good to see you! I know, it's silly, cos I remember seeing you when I've been asleep and I know I've spoken to you when this one was down a hole claiming it as Cassian's. But it is good to see you!" All kind of adventures together? Vega was most certainly delighted at that idea and as she took a long sip from the mug which now contained whiskey, she raised an eyebrow at Arlo. "What say you, Arlo Creede? Oh! Can you find Ti'niva's dreams and will he know it's us and can I come with you?" That sounded like fun, she had to say.

[Arlo Creede]

"You didn't," Arlo insisted. "You didn't ask." But then they both knew that he couldn't have, not then, and not yet. But he maintained it was the principle of the thing. Still. "It's good you know how anyway. You can protect yourself in your dreams now. Chase off what doesn't suit you."

But that giant sinkhole, appearing when it did and swallowing him up whole was Immortal intervention, so far as he was concerned. Quite by accident, or so it had seemed, he'd discovered a place unknown to anyone before then. And had claimed it in Cassion's name. So it had all turned out for the good.

He thought a trill or three though, and just when Vega might've believed he'd come up with nothing, Arlo grinned. "The mast in the storm, that was your fault," he said, somewhat triumphantly. "I'm not saying you made the storm, but it was you that insisted we had to climb up there and risk getting ruined by lightening." Or a very bad fall. A bad one indeed.

"I only know your father through your dreams, therefore your memories and feelings about him. To find him in Emea, I'd need to have met and known him personally," he told her. But was she to keep dreamwalking, get better at it, one trial she'd be able to find him herself. He could probably find Ti'niva though, and if she joined him in his own dream, then he expected they could find their Sev'ryn friend together.

"You still won't be able to see or hear me when you're awake," Lyova said solemnly when once she appeared and revealed herself to Vega. "If you were a follower of Jesine and she blessed you, she might give you a protector of your own...Would I see her protector Arlo?" the little fairy asked her keep. And after thinking about it, he shrugged. Truly, he had no idea.

But as for Vega's question, the young dreamwalker frowned. Could he even tell her that he had done it without realizing or thinking? It had all turned out for the good. But it could have gone differently after all. "I made mistakes while I was learning. I've been lucky enough to be able to put them to rights. You'll make mistakes too at first I'm sure." But he'd help her, Arlo promised, so she'd less a chance of making the same ones.

[Niv]

Vega

Knowledge:

Cooking: Stirring the pot
Cooking: Seasoned and seared meat tastes better
Dreamwalking: telling reality from fiction
Dreamwalking: Making a spoon stir
Dreamwalking: let things happen naturally
Dreamwalking: Dreaming is dangerous but you can learn to protect yourself against the dangers in time.
Dreamwalking: Imagination is the greatest tool in Emea
Dreamwalking: you can enter the dreams of nearby people but people with the mark can stretch father.
Dreamwalking: Start with things your familiar with.
Dreamwalking: Don’t tell others that your in a dream.
Dreamwalking: Time, space, distance mean nothing in Emea
Dreamwalking: Can’t seek out dreams of people you don’t know from long distances
Meditation: Concentrating on making a spoon stir in a dream.
Psychology: Analyzing a dream from within

The multicoloured dragon that looks like confused Biqaj eyes

Loot: 

N/A

Injuries: 

N/A

Fame:

N/A

Magic:

These points can NOT be used for Domain Magic

Devotion:

Jesine: +3 for Dream, +5 for collaborative dream thread, +5 for playing with Imagination

Story: 

5/5

Collaboration:

5/5

Structure:

5/5

Ario

Knowledge:

Dreamwalking: getting familiar with Vega’s dream
Dreamwalking: people are better at doing things in dreams
Dreamwalking: Imagination is the greatest tool in Emea
Dreamwalking: Summoning a fork
Dreamwalking: Jesine’s mark helps a great deal.
Dreamwalking: Time, space, distance mean nothing in Emea
Dreamwalking: Can’t seek out dreams of people you don’t know from long distances
Investigation: Who is Kosumi?
Investigation: Is Vega aware that she's dreaming or is she just dreaming about dreaming?
Psychology: Using dreams to tell when some one has conflicting emotions when awake.
Teaching: The ins and outs of dreaming
Teaching: By example
Vega: Dreamt of being in a house instead of the boat she said she grew up in.
Vega: Learned to dreamwalk from someone else, how rude.
Kosumi: An old guy that brought Vega through the veil
The multicoloured dragon that looks like confused Biqaj eyes

Loot: 

N/A

Injuries: 

N/A

Fame:

N/A

Magic:

These points can NOT be used for Domain Magic

Devotion:

Jesine: +3 for Dream, +5 for collaborative dream thread, +5 for playing with Imagination

Story: 

5/5

Collaboration:

5/5

Structure:

5/5

Notes: Great thread you two Especially loved the dialogue between you too. Sorry I took so long with this grade >__> won’t happen again...At least I hope not.
Art credit to Yoshitaka Amano