Dreamshare 1; open to all
There's a busy street in front of you. It looks familiar, so very familiar… you must have walked it ten, twenty, a hundred times. But you have no idea where you are.
That’s alright. You’re not worried… if you turn down that road up ahead, then you’ll know where you are. You’ll be home.
The street is crowded. The people walking past you seem to be familiar, too… your gaze slides over them as they walk past, mildly curious, but whatever it is that’s familiar about slides away as you look straight at them. It’s only out of the corner of your eye that you recognize them… isn’t that the man who sells vegetables in the Bazaar? And there’s the woman who works at the farm, the one who’s so kind to the animals… except when you look straight at them. No, it’s not them, just a man and a woman who look vaguely like them.
It doesn’t matter. You’re almost home. You walk past more almost-familiar-but-not-quite people, turn the corner past a tree you do and don’t recognize, and see…
Nothing.
It’s not there.
You stop, puzzled. This is where it should be… the hotsprings are there, and the forest, but it’s like the building that should be there never was. The whole thing is overgrown, mature trees where the reception usually is and delicate ferns growing where your bed should be.
You can hear a cat meowing in the forest somewhere ahead of you. “Adashino,” you mutter aloud. The silly cat is probably stuck in a tree or something… looks like you’d better go find him. Pushing aside a branch thick with leaves, you move into the dense patch of forest.
It doesn’t take long before you realize that they way is getting harder-branches snatch and catch at your hair and clothing no matter how you try to brush them away; vines and the undergrowth seem to conspire to tangle up your feet, so that you’re almost constantly nearly tripping. It’s so dark you can barely see… of all the things that should be worrying right now, this fact is what bothers you. It doesn’t matter how dark it is, you should be able to see. “This is ridiculous…” Reaching into your pocket you produce a large, sharp blade, one that couldn’t possibly have fit in there. You use it to start hacking at the plants that are blocking your path.
As you cut them, the plants start oozing a black, slightly viscous substance. Curious, you touch it… and the stuff reacts like it’s alive, grabbing onto your hand and shooting up your arm. You pull back sharply, and try to cut the stuff before any more can attach itself to you, but it’s too late… the blackness flattens itself against your skin, spreading out quickly to cover every inch. It feels cold, sticky, and entirely unpleasant… and then it reaches your mouth. You try to block it, covering your mouth and nose the best you can, but it gets in anyway.
It tastes like mint, oddly enough. As the stuff moves up to your eyes you close them, trying to keep breathing even as you can feel the cold moving to cover your throat…
You wake up. You’re lying on the ground; you can feel the grass beneath your fingers, and you take several deep breaths. It’s okay. You must have just been dreaming. You’re fine now. You can breathe; the blackness is gone.
“It was just a dream…”
“It’s still a dream.”
That voice… it’s so familiar. You sit up, turning to look at…
Pollux. He’s standing there, and the woman from your memory is sitting at his feet. She’s smiling. Your gaze settles on her, hoping you’ll hear her laugh. You’re certain she doesn’t do that enough… but no, she remains silent, though her eyes are crinkling in suppressed laughter. Pollux gestures at the door behind him. “Time to wake up.”
You slowly get to your feet and walk past the two of them, turning your head as you pass them, not wanting to lose sight of them. Eventually you’re forced to walk backwards, and the woman looks even more amused at that. You smile at her, a real smile, and her expression suddenly turns sad. You glance at the door, then back at them. She nods, encouragingly, though she still looks sad.
You turn away from both of them, slowly, and walk through the door, into white.