Madhuri (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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songerein2022-09-10 12:54 pm
songbird_slayer) wrote in songerein2022-09-10 12:54 pm
Entry tags:
Player Event: "Imbalance" [OPEN]
Who: Everyone! Even the newcomers! What a time to jump in, huh?
Which: OPEN Dreamscape
What: On the night of the 10th a strange dreamscape appears, dividing some dreamers into two, each bearing just half of themselves... how will they pull themselves together?
Warnings: Probably a lot. I trust you fine people to please mark your content appropriately should your threads make mention of anything triggering. I'm watching you.
Quiet nights never seem to stay quiet. It began with the slightest flicker within the crystal lanterns, a ripple, perhaps the sound of coins clinking together.
Then, with a distant scream, there was a torrent of blue and orange flame. It's hot but it doesn't burn, swirling and dancing with the frenzy of a desperate dancer. It blinds to familiar surroundings, twin colors that seemingly never end...
Until one's feet touches sand-dusted stone and marble. The air is hot and arid, ripe with burning kindling in myriad torches that line walkways. The flames rhythmically sway, catching the glimmer of golden archways and decor that embed the city... palace...? That lay before you.
Something is wrong. Really wrong. Something in you feels... different. Blank. But before you can comprehend it much further, something is running down the pathway in the distance to enter the palace like the devil was on its heels. That something looks just like you...
You pursue this weird other you... or, you don't. Perhaps you were drawn to the palace's splendor and decided to explore, maybe find some sweet treasure while you're here. Whatever the case, nothing about this place smells dusty or aged. It feels brand new... lined with statues and tapestries of what appeared to be great warriors, all humanoid and bearing twisted horns atop their heads and long, craggy tails covered in scales. But some of them have been altered in some way... some are missing their heads, and one or two "lucky" ones have simply had large claw marks ripped across their face. What would put claw marks in stone was anyone's guess.
Those who tire of the architecture may find some doors are unlocked. Yes, such a lavish place seems all too eager to lay itself bare for you, perhaps bearing a sparkly trinket or two to your liking. (Note: Unfortunately, any treasures obtained in the palace will only come back with you in the form of candies shaped as said jewels, crowns made of shortbread, tapestries spun from candy floss, etc. It's all food. Enjoy!)
Deeper and deeper you delve, either arms full of treasure or having bumped into friends who don't exactly act like your friends normally would, you find more motifs of the warriors, more intact the further you head through this weird city-palace. Near the center are statues depicting two... figures... each holding a pair of scales.
Yet no matter how much you wait and watch them, the scales continue to sway from one side to the other. There's nothing on their respective plates, however... what could be throwing them off?
If you place anything on the plates and mend the swaying scales, you are given a single shard of a strange crystal rife with dreamotion energy with a sense of wholeness and connection. It shifts colors as you turn it this way and that in your hand. Maybe that'll help put some of these people back together if fighting or talking to them won't do it...
[ooc: Information and Plotting post is here for easy review. The shards are meant to simplify putting people back together if needed, but are the only thing that can be taken into the semi-waking world as a pretty bauble. Also, a reminder that this is optional. Enjoy!]
Which: OPEN Dreamscape
What: On the night of the 10th a strange dreamscape appears, dividing some dreamers into two, each bearing just half of themselves... how will they pull themselves together?
Warnings: Probably a lot. I trust you fine people to please mark your content appropriately should your threads make mention of anything triggering. I'm watching you.
Quiet nights never seem to stay quiet. It began with the slightest flicker within the crystal lanterns, a ripple, perhaps the sound of coins clinking together.
Then, with a distant scream, there was a torrent of blue and orange flame. It's hot but it doesn't burn, swirling and dancing with the frenzy of a desperate dancer. It blinds to familiar surroundings, twin colors that seemingly never end...
Until one's feet touches sand-dusted stone and marble. The air is hot and arid, ripe with burning kindling in myriad torches that line walkways. The flames rhythmically sway, catching the glimmer of golden archways and decor that embed the city... palace...? That lay before you.
Something is wrong. Really wrong. Something in you feels... different. Blank. But before you can comprehend it much further, something is running down the pathway in the distance to enter the palace like the devil was on its heels. That something looks just like you...
You pursue this weird other you... or, you don't. Perhaps you were drawn to the palace's splendor and decided to explore, maybe find some sweet treasure while you're here. Whatever the case, nothing about this place smells dusty or aged. It feels brand new... lined with statues and tapestries of what appeared to be great warriors, all humanoid and bearing twisted horns atop their heads and long, craggy tails covered in scales. But some of them have been altered in some way... some are missing their heads, and one or two "lucky" ones have simply had large claw marks ripped across their face. What would put claw marks in stone was anyone's guess.
Those who tire of the architecture may find some doors are unlocked. Yes, such a lavish place seems all too eager to lay itself bare for you, perhaps bearing a sparkly trinket or two to your liking. (Note: Unfortunately, any treasures obtained in the palace will only come back with you in the form of candies shaped as said jewels, crowns made of shortbread, tapestries spun from candy floss, etc. It's all food. Enjoy!)
Deeper and deeper you delve, either arms full of treasure or having bumped into friends who don't exactly act like your friends normally would, you find more motifs of the warriors, more intact the further you head through this weird city-palace. Near the center are statues depicting two... figures... each holding a pair of scales.
Yet no matter how much you wait and watch them, the scales continue to sway from one side to the other. There's nothing on their respective plates, however... what could be throwing them off?
If you place anything on the plates and mend the swaying scales, you are given a single shard of a strange crystal rife with dreamotion energy with a sense of wholeness and connection. It shifts colors as you turn it this way and that in your hand. Maybe that'll help put some of these people back together if fighting or talking to them won't do it...
[ooc: Information and Plotting post is here for easy review. The shards are meant to simplify putting people back together if needed, but are the only thing that can be taken into the semi-waking world as a pretty bauble. Also, a reminder that this is optional. Enjoy!]
3. πππ ππ½πΎπππ ππΎππ½π.
And maybe, as recently as a month ago, Sumire would have taken this dreamscape as a chance to snatch back a wish once lost, to lapse into unknowingness once more... but in just that short time, she has learned. The pain may be unpleasant, but it remains part of who she is. From it, she has gained lessons that will guide and shape the rest of her life. Through it, she has grown to love and appreciate her sister all the more. Her pain has made her stronger, and she knows she can't leave here without it.
To do so would be accepting Dr. Maruki's reality for herself once more, after she has already chosen to reject it.
It is for this reason that she is crouched by the side of her double, a gentle expression on her face as she tries to explain it to herβ although the other Sumire doesn't seem to hear it, just shakes her head and curls up tighter, as if to somehow ignore her...
The ponytailed Sumire will look around her for anyone nearby, offering a small, helpless smile. ]
I don't suppose you would have any words of advice?
no subject
Change is scary, isn't it? Sometimes it seems better to just accept things as they are and cling onto what we know. But the funny thing about growing up is that even if you don't intentionally try to deviate from your path, at some point you'll look back and realize just how much has changed after all.
[He would be lying if he said he completely understood her situation or even what was going on, but maybe this would be enough to at least catch the other Sumire's attention?]
Can you honestly say that you would change certain parts of your life now?
I always wanted to become like a hero of eld who got to have some grand adventure. And then life got in the way of that, but looking back at it now, I don't think I'd change that now.
What I'm trying to say is that everything works out in the end, even if it's not easy to see that right away.
no subject
He's right, you know. I know how guilty you feel. I know how scared you are of living as Sumire. It was scary for me too. [ Some days, it's still scary. Even with her resolution made, waking up from the nightmares, to the memories, can be difficult. ] But running away isn't the answer either...!
[ When the other Sumire doesn't answer, just curls up a little tighter on herself, she sighs, and turns back to the man standing nearby. ]
Um... please understand. She'sβ [ I'm? ] She's not trying to be rude, but...
[ Perhaps, if she wasn't lacking that hesitant, unconfident part of herself right now, she'd leave it there. This man is a stranger, after all; telling him her deepest, darkest secret may not exactly be wise. But right now, all she knows is that he's trying to help.
And besides, all of that was in the past. There's nothing she can do to change it now. If the tables were turned, Kasumi would put her effort into moving forward, not looking backβ just as she does now. ]
About a year ago, my older sister died. I ran out into traffic and she protected me. Sheβ [ she pauses here, indicating the cringing, crying Sumire ] βshe is the part of me who blames herself for what happened. Who... who wants to be Kasumi instead of facing her pain.
[ Of course, it's much more complicated than thatβ it always is. But she figures it's enough for now.
Besides, missing that part of herself makes it somewhat strange to talk about, too. ]
no subject
There's no need to apologize. My condolences for your loss. 'Tis never an easy thing to face. While I can't say I know how either of you may feel personally, it is familiar...
[Would talking about Lyse help any? More like, would Lyse be angry at him if he did? Well, she wasn't here currently...]
Though it's not the same circumstances, one of my friends has gone through something similar. Her sister had stayed behind to save a young girl but did not survive. As a coping mechanism, she began to act like her sister, taking on her name and appearance. Eventually, she made her first steps to live for herself, accepting who she really was to walk her own path.
It was not easy, so I've been told. Though I don't doubt it. It's taken a long time for her to come to accept what happened and the wishes others had for her to walk her own path. Losing someone you love will never be easy, but it's important to remember just how many people care about you. I think once you realize that you're not alone in this, you can take those first steps to true recovery. Though the pain will likely never go away.
No one is replaceable. That includes you, as well. All you can do is move forward because if you hesitate, you'll never be able to come to terms with the matter.
1/2
She glances across at the other her, the one that seems to be uncurling a little as she listens to the words.
"It was not easy." She knows that for herself. Knows the pain that the girl in glasses is going through right now, even if for her own part it is entirely absent. (Which, in and of itself, isn't a bad feeling, even as she knows it is one she shouldn't be embracing. The long path ahead is daunting in its own way, after all; Kasumi has been dead for not even one year, and she has been Sumire again for less than a month.) But the man's words serve to give her hope she didn't know she needed, even as the other girl unfurls a little more, looks up at him with tears in her red eyes. ]
2/2
I'm... not replaceable?
[ It's these words that are the first the girl speaks since he's come across them, her eyes awash with the same tears that track down her cheeks, and compared to the bright vivacity in her double's eyes, there's a dullness to hers even with the tears brightening them, a dullness matched by her voice. As she speaks, though, something sparks behind the tears, the barest hint of life that until now, this half of Sumire has been lacking. ]
Kasumiβ She used to say the same kind of thing. She believed in me. She wanted to meet our dreams together, even thoughβ even though I could never match her. I thought that... being Kasumi... would be easier.
no subject
[He's glad his words got through to her, even if it little bit.]
I think... that she would be happy to see you reach your dream, even if she could not stand beside you the entire time.
We're all good at different things and have different paces. And that's okay. I think it's important to embraces your flaws and work to polish them, but not settle on them either.
[A point he made very clear with Madhuri as well.]
We all have something that we don't think is that great about us. It's easy to tell yourself that your flaws are bad and hard to remember the good things about us at times.
[Offering her a hand to stand up, he wanted to offer her some support if she wanted it. If anything, a hug was likely in order to comfort her, but he didn't know this girl and that would be too forward. He wanted to respect peoples' personal spaces as much as he could.]
no subject
But if she embraces herself as Kasumi, if she walks away from being Sumire, then she's allowing herself to settle on her own flaws, isn't she? And he just said...
There are good things about her too, aren't there? She's a good cook. Her coach said she has type of a grace that even her sister envied. She was able to fight with the others to save the whole world from a reality that was more like a dreamβ she fought for something she wanted. A choice.
Maybe that choice wasn't so wrong after all.
The reach of her hand is hesitant at first, but when she clasps his hand, it's strong, and she lets him pull her to her feet. For a moment, she wavers, but when the tears start to fall anew, she steps forward and into him, her usual thoughts of appropriate boundaries gone. ]
I'm so sorry, [ the Sumire with the ponytail whispers, but she's smiling, and she's crying too. ]
no subject
'Tis no trouble at all. Full glad am I to be of help.
[But for the moment, he glanced over to the Sumire with a ponytail with a soft smile, extending his hand to her as well to join in if she needed it. They may have just met, but he was happy to comfort her nonetheless.]
no subject
She doesn't feel a change, not at first. But when she unwinds her arms from around him and takes a step back, there's only one of her, and her clothes have changed leaving her in her Metaverse uniform, the dreamscape's usual favored outfit for her. And when she pauses for a moment to take stock... Yes, she's one again, made up once more of both the depressed part and the confident part.
To be honest, she's not even sure which one of the pair she was.
Sumire takes her mask into her hand, a surprised smile on her lips. ]
Um... I think you fixed me. Thank you so muchβ [ and here she realizes she doesn't know the gentleman's nameβand also, actually, that he has cat ears on top of his head (but she's hardly going to say anything about that, because that would be incredibly rude) ] βMister...?
no subject
Giving her space once she let go, he offered her a soft smile. Those ears that she's noticed might even wiggle ever so slightly if she's paying attention close enough.]
I am relieved. I apologize for intruding in on what is a personal matter when this is the first we've met. It didn't feel right to leave it be. My name is G'raha Tia. I hope you're feeling better now, miss.
no subject
I'm sorry, ma'am but.. I'm really not the best person to ask.
[There was a pause, both in steps and words, as he looked to his shoes then back up to the pony-tailed lady.]
I want to help... really I do, I just really don't know how.
[He'd been trying to figure out how to merge the two halves of his personality back together too, but unfortunately for him one of those sides was a great deal more murderous than the other]
... Uh.. at least she's not going anywhere or trying to harm you, so... maybe she can be reasoned with? [As carefully as he could he approached the slumped form of the other Sumire, and kneeled down beside her.] .. I know that all of this must have been pretty disorienting and likely made you question a few things about yourself but.. even then.. I don't think you've considered how she really feels? It's just like with me. I .... I just want to be whole again... even if.. [He trailed off and decided better of finishing that statement. "even if the world might be better off without his other half"]
[ooc: I know it's late as heck and there is no excuse, but I love you and.... accept my love. You def don't have to reply if you've got too much else going on <3]