Something had definitely changed about Anubias’ dreams lately, though he had not quite figured out what it all meant. All he knew was that he was more in control of them than he had ever been - and that he wanted to spend as much time sleeping as possible.
Which of course means he needs to get tired quickly and so he had spent the last while running laps around the meadow. Trailed occasionally by his companion but the red panda gave up after the first lap and found a nice rock to sit on and wait until Anubias drained enough energy that he was ready for his next nap.
When watching the yearling run by every few minutes got boring, the panda started “helping” with the count - which only meant that by the end, Anubias wasn’t sure if he was on lap 20 or lap 504. Neither of them could actually count to either of those numbers but it was the thought that really mattered.
Eventually, the number got really high and Anubias was tired enough that he curled up in a nest of grass in the meadow - made soft and lush again by another magic he did not understand - and with his companion snuggled close he drifted off into that dream world and prepared to weave some wonderful stories and build new worlds.
Only - when he got there, standing in what had become his staging area, he realized he wasn’t alone. Sometimes his companion came with him, sure, but in this misty area it was obvious that whoever it was was larger than a red panda and definitely horse-shaped. Soft sunlight and clouds surround them in this early part of the dream, and he turns his attention to the figure he can see - green eyes bright with a smile. “Oh! Hello!”
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@[Kamaria]
@[The Monsters] please mess with his immortality!
03-05-2021, 08:09 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-05-2021, 08:09 PM by Random Event.)
@[Anubias] your immortality has mutated into invisibility. you're welcome.
*i think this puts you over the limit so send in an update with what you want genetic. if it doesn't just yell at me to update.
| T he darkness makes her so very tired. Kamaria feels it press down around her, an unfathomable hand that pulls from below and pushes from above. She resists it the best she can; her pale body rebels against the invisible enemy. The girl cannot understand why the darkness affects her the way it does. It feels like it should be her accomplice — her friend, even — and yet she can feel the weapons it uses to weaken her.
Little does she know of the times before her birth (before this impossible dark) when the night was a vessel to carry her inheritance.
There are days when she cannot refuse it. Sometimes the girl finds her mother’s hollow, sad eyes, and an understanding passes between them. They are not made for this awful, pressing dark. They are made for a night full of galaxies and moonglow and shimmering stars. Though Kamaria doesn’t understand her ancestry, her mother’s origin comes from an ancient star. That full midnight sky, the one bursting with life and color and stories, holds her family in its vast expanse.
And sometimes, the darkness is just too much. It hurts to be separated — pulled apart from a starry family she has never known and a mysterious father she has never met — so they settle together within the safety of their cave and drift off to sleep.
It is bright in this dream. The sunlight pricks at her eyes, unfamiliar and confusing compared to what she has known. Kamaria wonders what she had eaten to bring an ability to dream of something she has never seen. The voice of a stranger pulls her navy eyes away from her surroundings and toward a green-eyed boy. He is oddly friendly for her dreams; typically, the strangers are faceless, mysterious beings who fade in and out of her vision.
“Oh, hello,” she mimics, in a voice less optimistic than the boy’s. “You look very real to be in a dream.”
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credit to nat of adoxography.
@[Anubias]
Once she speaks and confirms that she’s real, Anubias cannot help but show off a little. The mists around them soften and he’s able to create the meadow - glittering in some early dawn light. He always recreates the sun in his dreams, the short time that he had existed with it had not nearly been long enough. It is usually either too bright or too dim, though, because his memories of it have started to fade. In this dream, it’s a little too dim but he’s quite proud of the effect.
As the details start to spiral out from him, he replies - flicking his metallic green ears. “I am both real and in a dream so I guess that must be why.” He replies with a bright smile, not thinking too much about her less-than-optimistic voice. He’s far too curious about her being here with him (while also simultaneously hoping his companion isn’t too put out at not having been included this time).
His head tilts to the side a little as he lets some of those curiosities out. “Are you real? Can you dream-walk too?” He didn’t know whether there was an official name for what he could do, shaping his dreams as he did, or even if it was a “thing” at all. Maybe everyone could do this once they reached a certain age! The filly before him looked to be a little younger, sure, which only made it all the more impressive that she could do it too.
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@[Kamaria]
| T he world around them shifts, becoming soft with morning mist and hazy from the sunlight trickling down above their heads. The emerald grass is tipped with dew, and they sparkle like diamonds. It looks like a whole sea of brilliant clear gems, and the shine reflects to catch itself in the growing stones that freckle across her face. Kamaria can’t help but feel awed by the scene, by how perfect each blade of grass looks, how the world glitters around her, and she knows there is no way she could have dreamed this up alone.
She’s beginning to get confused, and her ears twist into her growing mane when the boy speaks. His sentence further confuses her, and Kamaria finds herself irritated. She likes to know things, to understand how they work and where she fits in the picture (and she likes to control things, too). The boy’s questions make her feel out of control, and she doesn’t like it.
The star-girl sends a quick wave of annoyance toward the boy, but it lasts only seconds. Perhaps that will show him that she’s confused (and scared, but she can’t admit that)... Though Kamaria doesn’t think about the fact that she could just tell him she’s confused. “Of course I’m real and I don’t know what ‘dream-walking’ is,” she says, this time with more aggression than the last. “Who are you?”
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credit to nat of adoxography.
@[Anubias]
Anubias does not think he’s ever felt annoyed about anything ever, so the sudden flush of it that ripples through his body is confusing. He feels his smile slip into a frown, feels uncertainty for the first time in his young life. But then it is gone in a flash and he’s facing something he’s a little more certain of - the filly in this dream does not seem particularly pleased.
That is, he thinks, something he can try to fix.
His manner is back to being calm, now that the strange flush of annoyance has faded away, and he tries to explain himself as best as he knows how. “I’m Anubias. I can… I can shape and move through dreams. Create whatever I want.” As he says this, the colours of the meadow around them shift - greens and blues and iridescent and metallic things that match the pair of them. “I think I accidentally pulled you into mine. I normally bring my companion so we can play games but I’m still practicing.” Here Anubias finally frowns a little, upset that he had made a mistake like this especially if it makes her upset.
So he offers “I can try to wake up, if you want. Then you'll wake up too.” but he really can only try because so far, once the dream has him it’s difficult to rouse himself from sleep and he normally just needs to wait it out. Anubias hopes that she is not in an immediate rush to get out of this dream, or she might feel a little more of that annoyance.
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@[Kamaria]
06-13-2021, 04:30 PM
(This post was last modified: 06-13-2021, 04:30 PM by Kamaria.)
| K amaria has some understanding of what it means to create. Her father shared his ability to craft and shape and perfect emotions, and her blood runs with the same magic. She doesn’t know of her star-gift, though, the one that will let her pull the starlight from the sky and twist it wherever she wants. But she’s beginning to develop her ability to pluck emotions from thin air (not even from the library housed within, like her father does, but pulled away from nothing), and this is the closest thing she relates with Anubias’s explanation.
A rare, faint smile whispers across her pale face when the meadow shudders to match the iridescence and green of their bodies. The darkness had snatched the brightest colors from the world before she was born, so when Anubias makes them shift to life, Kamaria thinks it is the most brilliant, beautiful thing she has ever seen. She’s dazzled, and subsequently not annoyed anymore. For some reason she believes him, despite her natural inclination toward mistrust.
When he suggests trying to wake up, Kamaria’s initial reaction is a strong no. Her face, with those pretty navy eyes and dumortierte stones freckling down toward her nose, remains relatively cool and composed even while she immediately denies the idea of waking up. This world is better than anything she could dream up, and it appeases to her wanderlust as if she’s been in a desert and here is the oasis with sweet, cold water.
The starry girl rolls her shoulders casually, shaking away the rest of her frustration. “I’d like to stay, if that’s okay,” she says, and her eyes turn from the fantasy, unique landscape toward his green face. “I’m Kamaria. What kind of games do you play with your companion?”
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credit to nat of adoxography.
@[Anubias]
Anubias does not know how rare the girl’s smiles are, but he is glad to see one all the same as she looks at how the dream has shifted around them and how it matches them in its brilliant colours. Changing the colours of wherever he was had been one of the first tricks he learned - when he had been chasing Creature and everywhere the red panda pounced turned shades of orange and black and white before being gobbled up by Anubias’ metallic greens.
When she says she’d like to stay, his smile is not faint - it shines brightly in his pale green eyes and he relaxes more completely, so thankful that she's not angry enough that she wants out right away. “That’s definitely okay.”
Kamaria introduces herself and then asks what games he places with his companion and his expression turns into a comical exaggeration of thoughtfulness. “Oh hm. Sometimes I make us really small, so we have to find our way through a grass blade forest. Or we go cloud-hopping. And once we played hide-and-seek at the bottom of the ocean.” Anubias has never seen the ocean in real life so his version of what the sea is like is woven from stories.
He tilts his head, regarding the jewel-strewn girl for a moment before asking “What do you think, Kamaria? If you could go anywhere at all, where would it be?”
He only hopes that he’ll be able to craft it, whatever she might think of - but he doesn’t share these worries with her. If he pretends they don’t exist, perhaps the rest of this dream will go smoothly, even with an accidental visitor.
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@[Kamaria]
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