songerein | [OPEN] Within You

Who: Madhuri and You
Which: Interactive Dreamscape, OPEN
What: A Bleeding Heart decided to have a lovely bite. The resulting dreamscape isn't exactly what it seems...
Warnings: N/A, but will update if somehow something happens. Cooties?

One of the louder presences in Reverein had gone quiet. Someone wasn't dancing in the square or shoving something tasty in someone's hands or handing out bread rolls. Someone wasn't knocking a hammer against a freshly-painted sign and getting it ready for affixing to that slowly-growing little shop in the district.

Strangest of all, the smell of something burning seemed to come from one of the treehouses a lot. No fires, thankfully, but there was never any smell of smoke before. It was usually the scent of yeast, of cinnamon, of fresh bread...

Then, one night, the lanterns erupted to life and bloomed into a brand new dream.

Walls of white marble stretched practically out of sight, only giving way to ornate stained glass windows depicting different tales- Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella and others- and lush crystal chandeliers hung from the ceiling, providing warm light.

This world was an elegant ball room, filled wall to wall with pairs of dancers dressed to the nines circling merrily to the music, provided by the band that gave their all to fill the air. Everyone was wearing an ornate masquerade mask, yourself included, but the anonymity didn't stop the merriment as laughter and chatter mingled with the waltz. You could smell the wine being poured, the rich spread of finger foods lining a table to one side. Some of the dancers had decided to pick at some of the fruit, bread and cheeses, but spent no less time conversing with one another. There was a faint, strange sound somewhere else, a rhythmic drumming, but it was gone as soon as it had begun.

At the end of the ballroom, however, a figure rose from her seat. Those who knew her would recognize this person unmistakably as Madhuri, dressed in a ballgown of black and plum, her mask a lacy black with feathers streaking from one side. Her eyes alight with pleasure as she sees you, she cuts a path through the crowd... or rather, the crowd parts as if expecting this, opening the way for her to reach your side.

"I'm thrilled you came! I was hoping you'd answered my invitation." Her eyes deepened in a showy regret as she reached out, brought her hands to both your cheeks. Her voice lowered, hushed, yet even amid the din of the festivities, it was clear as day.

"I was so lonely here, and my card empty. Shall we dance...?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Nier had seen a variety of things in his misadventures that drove him toward both the freedom of his daughter and the clutch of the Shadowlord. Even with that in mind, however, elegant ballrooms were not one of those things. And given that he understood well enough that the town just didn't have anything quite so fancy and elegant, it didn't take him long to figure out what he'd stumbled into. It did make him reassess his wear, however. For a man who looked more like a barbarian a majority of the time, to be dressed in something nice was more than a little unlike him.

A hand lifted and he touched the mask that he found at his face. Nier made a note never to mention the happenstance to Kainé, knowing full well if he did, she would outright laugh him out of every room he went into afterwards.

It was as he was trying to figure out if he was even wearing his finely trimmed and tailored suit appropriately that he heard Madhuri's voice. Although thinking she was simply referring to some other nearby person, his fingers worn by time and circumstance fluttered over the buttons that lined the midsection and he carefully plucked at them with an idle curiosity.

Contact followed shortly after and he brought his gaze onto her. Light blue examined her for some moments, trying to remember if he knew the voice from somewhere. The appearance... was familiar. In passing he'd seen her. Wasn't she the... the dancer? He was almost certain that's how he'd known of her, but it wasn't as if he'd known many who looked like her.

"Uh—" Wait. Had she just asked him to dance? "You sure you haven't confused me for someone else? I'm not exactly the best dancer."

Her fingers moved with care, the touch as fond as that of a lover. Her eyes danced in amusement as a soft laugh left her. Now, what was it they had been joking about before...? Ah, yes.

"It matters little to me how many left feet you have, so long as I get to spend this precious time with you. Besides, it's three steps. I'll show you how it's done." She adjusted his hands for him before assuming her own position.

"You clean up good, by the way. Is this your first time in fancy do's?" Madhuri gently stepped back, guiding him into the crowd.

He couldn't remember the last time someone touched him like that. He knew that it was somewhat reminiscent of his late wife, but maybe no one else other than her ever had. Truthfully, he'd tried not to think about it. If he could manage.

Still trying to piece together what exactly had brought him to the present moment, before he knew it, he was trying to play the part of something more elegant and less barbarian. He wasn't confident he could pull it off. Besides, in a room where she was, without a doubt, the prettiest creature, she easily could have picked anyone. He was only an old, tired man.

"Well. Uh," he began, trying to ignore the rest of the crowd and what laughable happenstance was going to follow. "Yeah. Parties weren't exactly much of a thing back home. Unless you want to consider tavern visits parties."

She cast a casual glance to her left and right, an almost bladed look that was quick as it was sharp. The crowd knew better than to continue to ogle, and continued their festivities. The look back to Nier was only warm, the laugh just the same.

"Depends on the tavern! I've been to a few fun ones; the trick is to head nearest to the coastlines. Pirates truly know how to have a good time, you see... the experiences they love to tell over an ale no matter how cheap, the way their rough and work-dirtied hands gesture to build on the tale, each movement rife with unspoken promise..." Had she teased a number of the seafaring folk before? Gosh, she wasn't telling.

The dance wasn't much of one at all, a gentle sway and few awkward steps, but whether it bothered her was written anywhere on her face.

"I wonder what you did for amusement, if not for the occasional party. Don't tell me you never so much as took an off day...!"

"Pirates...?"

For all of his misadventuring with Weiss, Nier couldn't quite recall if he'd ever met a pirate before. Sure, he read plenty about them. Heard stories about them. They were all over history. Maybe with the state of the world being what it was, it might have been hard to invoke piracy of anything simply because... there wasn't much. Or maybe they were all pirates considering they were trying to survive.

"There was a town by the water that I used to visit and run errands to, or for, but I don't remember ever seeing any pirates. Did a hell of a lot of fishing from there, though." He was almost certain he'd spent days fishing there, honestly. It was a little hard to keep track of time. "I know that they had boats that went across the water to whatever was on the other side."

He spent more of his time looking at his feet just to make sure he wasn't about to step on hers. As such, it took him a few moments to really zero in on what she was asking. An off day. Off days? He wasn't sure he'd ever had any when it came down to the Black Scrawl. But he also didn't want to talk about that. It was too easy for him to drown in talks and conversations of Yonah. It would have been easy to assume that was all there was to the man.

"Well, I was kind of a mercenary, so I basically did whatever I could to make a little money. I'm not sure I ever really took a day off, but then I've always liked keeping my hands busy. Hard to be idle, after all."

"Of course. A fishing mercenary who likes to busy his hands. I don't know about you, but you sound but a hair's breadth from a pirate. Or, at the very least, a sailor."

Even with the focus on his feet, she didn't seem to mind or even try to correct him. Instead she held a little tighter and let them sway to the music. She would fill her card with him, were it up to her.

"But you never climbed on the boat, did you? You said 'whatever was on the side'... surely you had some curiosity of what lay on the horizon? You don't look the sort for reluctance. Did something keep you planted?"

"Did you just say I sound like a—"

Nier shook his head, barking out a short-lived laugh. "Sailor, no. The village I come from is by the water, but not the kind of water that real ships would be sailing from." He had decided relatively quickly that boats and ships just weren't in the same category. "The other village I was talking about is a bit away."

When she asked, he found himself pausing for several moments. It wasn't like he hadn't thought about it. He'd wanted to. Kind of. A part of him did, anyway. If things had been different... If they had been different, he would have given in. Would have changed things. Could have taken Yonah all the way... away from the village.

"I had a daughter I had to take care of," he explained. "We weren't in a situation where we could just leave."

"Oh...?" Her eyes alit with newfound interest, and there was an odd soft light blooming from her chest.

"What sacrifices you must have made to keep your little girl safe! That's dedication." She sighed wistfully.

"Would that I could have known my own father better. My memories of him are so distant, so faint... oh, but I've long come to grips with all of that." She waved a hand dismissively.

"So instead I live vicariously! What's she like?"

The light. Before he could even begin to ask about it, she distracted him. It would have been easy to fall into the trap of discussing his daughter. It was easy enough to do it when someone wasn't asking. Having her curiosity... something about it left him feeling very warm. He'd tried so hard to avoid seeming like a one-track mind. To be encouraged otherwise without her even knowing it...

"If it helps, I don't much remember my own parents either," he admitted, dipping his chin with some thought. Maybe that was why he acted with Yonah as he did.

"My daughter... uh." He wondered what she really was like, given that he'd not had much time with her for reunion before he passed the mantle of responsibility onto Kainé. "Well, helpful. Quick to worry about people other than herself. She hasn't had the easiest life, but she's strong. Very strong. Probably more mature than a child needs to be, which is a consequence of her experiences. I couldn't be a prouder father, though. She's everything and more that I could have hoped for."

[OPEN] Within You

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