Player Event: "Imbalance" [OPEN]

[songbird_slayer]

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!]

Comments

2/2

[feale]

[ "No one is replaceable. That includes you, as well." ]

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. ]

Kasumi— She used to say the same kind of thing. She believed in me. She wanted to meet our dreams together, even though— even though I could never match her. I thought that... being Kasumi... would be easier.

[crystalized_hope]

You are not. You are precious as you are. No matter how much you act like someone else, Sumire will be equally important to those around you. They may have even mentioned this before.

[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.]

[feale]

[ She looks up when he reaches out his hand, and for a moment there's doubt on her face, the temptation to shake her head. Of course Kasumi would be happy to see her reach their dream, but... isn't it selfish to still hold that dream, when her sister was clearly the more talented of the two of them? If things had gone the way they should, the future would have Kasumi's name in lights. To dream of having her own name seems wrong—

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 dream— 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. ]

[crystalized_hope]

[Just because Kasumi may have been the better one of the two, that didn't make her shared dream any less important. With her accepting his help to her feet, he was relieved to see her making that step. When she stepped further towards him, he was a little surprised, but not at all troubled. He pulled her into a comforting hug, petting her head softly.]

'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.]

[feale]

[ Sumire watches, more than a little amazed at his success with her other self, and there's a moments where she wonders: how differently would things have been for her if she'd been in the care of someone like him— someone who seems to genuinely want to help her face the problem rather than run from it the way Dr. Maruki encouraged her to. But it's not a thought that lasts for long, because his hand extends to her as well; without even really stopping to process his action or hers that follows, she steps in to join the other part of her currently in his embrace, eyes falling closed against the tears welling in them.

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 much— [ and here she realizes she doesn't know the gentleman's name—and 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) ] —Mister...?

[crystalized_hope]

[If nothing else, he was happy to help her out. More then that, this went to show that there were ways to reverse the splitting process. There was a spark of hope that he could help Madhuri revert back to normal as well. Not that he was one to ever lose hope on things getting better. It's that hope that helped all those years in the First prior to summoning the Scions that allowed him to keep moving forward, no matter how difficult it seemed.

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.