Come Dreamwalk With Me 7 (Open to anyone on the Loki)

[curious_copycat]

Who: Polly (curious_copycat) and anyone on the Loki
What: Nocturnal Telepathic Shenanigans, Random CR, Drama, Exposition, Crack, Surreal Shite, Whatever You Want.
Where: In Your Head... or Polly's
When: ANY TIME during the plot!
Warnings: They're dreams. Anything--absolutely anything--can happen. Not even the laws of physics apply.

Comments

[inferioriplex]

Remus never slept well on his own, even now, curled up in his bed with his arms wrapped around a large pillow, he barely managed to keep a grip on his dreams. Lucid dreaming was not an unfamiliar concept or an uncommon occurrence for him and his people, but it still took every technique handed down through generations to just stay.

Perhaps... if he allowed himself to indulge in a fantasy or two... (and no, not one of those fantasies). The area around him stayed the same: a dock by a crystal clear ocean, with just the hints of blue, reflecting an empty sky.

The tall figure of his older brother appeared at the end of the dock. Remus didn't bother to try and speak with him, he knew that the responses would just be products of his own imagination. He didn't need interaction, anyway. He took comfort in knowing someone was there. Instead he lay on a clay-tiled roof, allowing the chilly air to brush against his face.

[curious_copycat]

It was the sound of the sea that drew her, at first. She had, in the past year, come to the conclusion that she quite liked the sea. Following the ebb and flow of the waves, she was not surprised when the buildings of her city slowly began to change. A sea that she hadn't called forth intentionally could only belong to someone else's nighttime ruminations.

She didn't see Remus, at first, down on the street, as she was. She did, however, catch sight of his brother, down on the dock. Cautiously, she started toward the figure...

[inferioriplex]

Something wasn't right.

Not that the something-not-right felt wrong, it just felt off, if that made any sense. Either way, this disturbance, if it could be called such, needed to be dealt with. Remus slowly rose from his perch, and jumped to the ground, halting himself in midair just before his boots could touch the stone. Not that he needed to take such a precaution in this dream state, but old habits were hard to break, and trivial events such as making sure he didn't have to convince his body that his bones weren't in peril made all the difference in keeping control.

As he strolled along toward the dock, Remus managed to identify his intruder, and called out softly.

"Don't bother, he won't answer."

[curious_copycat]

The unexpected voice made the Eternal jump, but when she turned toward its owner, her face lit up with a smile and she waved at him.

"Remus!"

Sparing the lone, silent figure of his brother a glance, she changed directions to jog toward her friend.

"This is a beautiful place! Is it your homeworld?"

[inferioriplex]

"An illusion of it, yes. Although I think I managed to get it close enough."

He never looked directly at Polly, and his shoulders remained slumped, his body curving away from her. If she had any ideas about hugging him hello, hopefully they'd be dispelled by his reclusive body language. Some things just never changed, even in his dreams.

"...Although I'm curious as to what you're doing here. I'm fairly sure I didn't include you in the construction plans." Almost as a test, he thought up a reply in his head, one that he felt Polly would give-- if it was the same, he'd know that she was just a product of his imagination, and he would be free to ignore her to his heart's content.

[curious_copycat]

She slowed to pause a few feet from him, reading his body language easily enough. She's known plenty of recluses, in her time on the Thor, to be familiar with the signs. She continues to smile, however, just as happy to see him, regardless.

"Oh... You didn't. It's just harder for me to stay in my own mind, when I sleep." She blushed, a little sheepishly. "I've ended up walking into other people's dreams a lot..."

[inferioriplex]

Well that certainly wasn't expected.

Despite the sheer creepiness factor of her abilities, Remus found himself curious. Dreamwalking, although a concept brought up in his studies, wasn't a skill known amongst his people (although rumors that another race had perfected it naturally sprung up here and there throughout the years).

For now, though, it would serve him best to just take things one step at a time and play it cool.

"That sounds inconvenient. Is it a trait of your species?"

Sorry it took so long, LJ's been horrible the past couple of nights! -_-;

[curious_copycat]

The girl nodded.

“Yes, we’re all telepathic. And I suppose we all must’ve been able to walk in dreams. It’s not inconvenient, usually--usually it’s really great! We can’t have real dreams of our own, so it’s nice to walk in other people’s.”

Her eyes shone a little as she looked around.

“People carry so many worlds around in their heads, that they make up all on their own--usually without even realizing it! It’s perfect and complete and real just for a few hours, and then it vanishes… We could never make anything that good! All I ever see when I sleep is memories.”

;w; it's okay-- trust me, I know of LJ's douchebaggery

[inferioriplex]

"Usually, but this is the result of actual work. I'm afraid you won't find anything mystical here."

Remus didn't mean for his words to come out as harsh, in fact, he was very gentle when considering how mean he usually got. It took a few moments, but, eventually, he realized just how surly and unfriendly he sounded. Usually, this wouldn't bother him, but when it came right down to it, Polly was one of the few human-esque creatures who he found tolerable, perhaps even likeable.

"...I'm sorry. That didn't come out just right. What I meant to say is, there really isn't anything special going on here." Remus gestured to the town with his head, his hair (naturally wavy in his dreams, thank you very much) flipping with the force of the action.

"All of my handiwork is constructed of actual memories of my own. I, personally, lack the creativity you seek."

Re: ;w; it's okay-- trust me, I know of LJ's douchebaggery

[curious_copycat]

The girl smiled, unperturbed. "But it's still someplace new. It's still someplace I've never seen. That's makes it special, to me!"

She looked around at the very same houses he'd nodded at so dismissively, eyes alight with her native curiosity.

"I like it! Is this where you grew up?"

Turning, she pointed to the man on the dock.

"Is that a friend of yours?"

[inferioriplex]

Remus slowly turned to regard the town built from fragments of his own memory with a filler of fantasy in between. He was good at hiding his emotions in the real world, where muscle control mostly dominated raw feeling. However, here, his resolve and abilities were somewhat weakened. Although he did his best to mask the full expanse of his sadness, a somber look still managed to worm its way onto his face.

"...Herald-Harbor, the biggest exporter of seafood in all of Mari'nir." Remus dug his hands into his pockets, "Yes, this is the town where I grew up."

His voice remained steady, although it took him a few moments to approach Polly's other question.

"No. Well. Yes, but more than that. He's my brother."

[curious_copycat]

She caught the sorrow in his expression, and she couldn't resist tentatively reaching out to pat his shoulder.

"You miss it..."

The idea of Missing Home was somewhat distant, to her. She understood it, intellectually, but had never felt it, for herself. There were too many bad memories, too much she wanted to leave behind. Were it not for the responsibility the White Guardian had settled onto her shoulders, she would have been quite happy to never see the Eternal Realm again.

"And I know you must miss him..." That, at least, she understood fully.

"It must have been a good life, here..."

[inferioriplex]

"...I wasn't exactly appreciated in Herald-Harbor." Remus responded with the scathing bitterness he felt well deserved of his hometown. Or at least a good chunk of its population. The outburst wasn't exactly planned, and he berated himself for losing his usually tight control, allowing part of the blame to fall on his dream self. He was thankful that he'd remained turned away from the ever curious Polly.

He knew questions would follow, so he followed with a very quick not-lie. A half-truth. A pseudo-honest-reaction. Something that seemed revealing enough to distract from the main issue and put Remus into a more sympathetic light. The truth about his curse was not allowed to make it into the open

[curious_copycat]

The bitterness in his voice made her flinch, but the half-truth did its job, distracting her, for the moment, from the very questions he feared.

Her eyes shone at the mention of his occupation.

"A librarian! I've been one of those before--at the Seen Library, on the Thor. And the library was my favorite room, in Mama's--"

And as quickly as the memory came, the scenery changed, row upon row of shelves rising up around them, encircled by walls of faintly-glowing marble, an enormous fireplace at one end. (It was as fine and luxurious a home as atoms could build, limited only by its builder's knowledge, which, for all the woman's flaws, had been extensive.) In front of the fireplace was huddled a small, red-headed child in a white shift, reading a book nearly as large as she was. Being only a memory, she did not seem to notice them.

Polly paled a bit, not having meant to bring them here.

"...house..."

[inferioriplex]

The shift came unexpected and jarred poor Remus into a jump and a gasp, although at the new, homey atmosphere, he quickly relaxed.

At Polly's reaction, though, he took great care in the next statements he made, not wanting to upset her more. After all, if she could change his own dreams at the drop of a hat, who knows what she was capable of when provoked.

"...Quite a detour."

[curious_copycat]

She shook her head. "I'm sorry--I didn't mean to..."

Somewhere deeper in the house, on the floor above them, there was the sound of foot steps, echoing off the stone. Both Polly and her child-self raised their heads, identical looks of anxiety crossing their faces.

Even as the child closed the book and scampered away to hide among the shelves and the shadows, Polly was reaching out a hand to the Duende.

"We shouldn't be here..." she murmured, "We should leave!"