All up in the blogs sayin' we met at the bar

[pacifisted]

WHO: Trowa Barton, A crowd of NPCs and 14 poor unsuspecting saps all under a curse, and anyone who sees this going on or gets dragged in by accident. ADD YOUR TAGS.
WHERE: Alllllll over the City.
WHEN: Thursday, July 22 (Day 1)
WARNINGS: Large amounts of hideous as the weekend wears on.
SUMMARY: The poor kid pissed off Aphrodite and then told her

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That night, when Trowa tries to get some sleep...

[ofthedream]

At first, Towa's dreams are normal and (for the most part) innocuous. But at some point during the night, there is a subtle shift.

Trowa will find himself wandering through a forest. The deeper he goes, the more primordial and ancient the forest becomes. However, contrary to the primeval instinct of mankind, this forest is not forbidding. In fact... it feels almost welcoming... In fact, it seems to be calling him deeper into the forest.

After a time, he'll start to get the feeling of being watched... But it's an almost benign sort of interest - like a smile from someone watching you across the room.

[pacifisted]

He isn't exactly clear on the point that he's dreaming, at the time; he does not often remember any of them save the worst. It's only been recently that he can recall snippets of the more pleasant ones after waking. But even if he isn't, being in the thick of the natural world has never been something he's had a problem with. In fact, for all of his time spent around machines and weapons of war, the boy is equally at home in a forest as he is in a mobile suit

[ofthedream]

The forest is full of rich and exotic scents. Green growing things, strange and exotic flowers, the scent and distant sounds of creatures unknown on Earth, or unseen for thousands of years.

The trees are massive things, towering far above the forest floor. Trunks as wide as a three-lane highway in some cases. The ground cover thins out to low ferns as the canopy arches far overhead. The light that filtered down from above was almost glowing green from shining through the leaves above.

Here, the forest is quieter, more serene than a forest would naturally be. It's almost as if the primeval forest was holding it's breath in the presence of something. There's a new scent in the air here - richly redolent of green growth and flowers, something female and... a breath of something almost reptilian

[pacifisted]

It is not the sight of unusual animals or gigantic plants that gets him wondering about where exactly he is. What bothers him is that there should be no way he could have gotten from the City to a place with that much foliage so fast; there is just no place around that exists to even possibly think of hiding that much green growth inside of it within many, many hours' travel.

Still, he keeps going. There's something about this place that just...

Trowa snarls at the sound of the person behind him, at first, spinning and lowering himself to the ground to prepare to spring if necessary. However, it isn't another creature come to be on the attack--it's a lady, and one rather unlike any one of them he's met before. She's shockingly tall, and very... well, she's very green, isn't she?

He can't make up his mind as to what he ought to do about her, and so repeatedly bares his teeth without making any actual sound, trying to figure out what she wants and whether or not scaring her off would be one of his brighter ideas.

[ofthedream]

Despite the whirling and snarling and the gnashing of teeth, she shows no fear at all. In fact, she smiles rather warmly at him. And then she steps forward. She was already quite close, and now she moves right up to him with a gentle smile.

There's just... something about her that seems soothing and benign... and utterly unafraid of him. When she speaks, her voice is calm and soothing.

"Be at ease, and welcome, young one." And then she lifts her hand to lightly touch atop his muzzle, as if in benediction.

[pacifisted]

He starts to try to flatten himself, not wishing to have the stranger come near--too many people coming close lately, too many bothering him in some way or other--but the voice is hard to resist. Belatedly, Trowa realizes that it's rather like the tactic he used to calm the lion when he applied for the circus job on L3, and that he's already stopped trying to get away.

It's humiliating at first, but the woman doesn't seem to be out to embarrass him, and so the internal disgust at behaving so slowly dissipates. Fortunately, he has a far easier time hiding his emotions while in the various beast forms, as most people do not find them nearly as expressive. Then again, how she's acting... perhaps she knows how to read them as well as he does. The thought is mildly discomfiting.

The lion-Trowa sits, his bright green eyes fixated on the hand on his nose, and decides to be patient. Hastiness made for mistakes. If she can do that, then she might be dangerous, and to act without being fully informed would be, well, stupid.

[ofthedream]

Ysera smiles warmly - perhaps a touch amused, but not at his expense. She's amused that even in this world of iron and stone cities that cover the land like a sore, she can find someone who reminds her a little bit of home. Nature finds a way to express itself, even in the City

[pacifisted]

Changing bodies doesn't take away his ability to understand spoken languages; he hears what she's saying, but the strange and unfamiliar is never something he's been able to approach without a large degree of paranoia and caution. Although she keeps attempting to reassure him, some part of him retains his training as a soldier, and so he continues to remain careful around this person he doesn't know

[ofthedream]

Ysera tilts her head slightly as he backs up and growls. She's disappointed that he broke contact. But then it occurs to her what he's noticed.

She laughs softly and warmly and inclines her head ever so slightly to him. "Ah, clever one, you need not fear me, truly." She would never seek to harm him. "It is true, this is not my real form. But that is not yours, either."

"I did not wish to frighten you on our first meeting."

[pacifisted]

...Hm. Then she knows. It doesn't matter how; he's been caught out, and there's no point pretending he's anyone or anything other than who he is. He shakes himself out, the bulky animal's mass thinning out in little more than an instant to the shape of a young man standing upright with his arms crossed, all concealing clothing and long, face-masking bangs.

"First?" Trowa parrots, putting an edge on the word that implied he believed she thought too highly of herself. After all, he'd never agreed to any repeats of the incident.

[ofthedream]

"I have not met you before, and you have not met me before. It is our first meeting. I would remember if we had met before."

She inclines her head politely toward him. "I am Ysera."

[pacifisted]

...Fair enough. He can't argue that point.

"Trowa Barton," he says, nodding his head once, watching her from behind the curtain of hair. "Why are you here?"

The boy didn't waste a lot of time on pleasantries.

[ofthedream]

She smiles again. "I wished to meet you. There are few in this world capable of waking and drawing forth the spirit of their inner beast."

She smiles more fondly, reminiscing a little. "It is like a breath of home in this world of stone and iron sprawls."

[pacifisted]

Trowa frowned, trying to put her words into a kind of sense. Capable of... what, the shapeshifting? That was what brought her? He'd had some unusual dreams about using his powers, like chasing down hulking great bovine beasts or tearing across enormous swaths of land, but this beat most of them by far.

Well. This was obviously just his own mind having a bit of fun with him, so he might as well play along.

"Where was home?"

[ofthedream]

"The Emerald Dream. The world that was, and is."

She tips her head slightly to the side. "Has this City always been your world?"

[pacifisted]

A shake of his head 'no', and a furrowed brow accompany his words as he answers her.

"For a year and a half. That's all."

Wouldn't she--well, he, really, if this was his own imagination--know that? Or was this one of those things he has to figure out himself, like... it's getting confusing, trying to sort these kinds of problems out. The mind has a difficult time trying to work in absolutes when the body is asleep.

"Emerald dream?"