trans_9 | Deep Dreamer

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Deep Dreamer

Though she'd been told to stay in medbay, in case she really did fall asleep somewhere no one would find her, Miku had stumbled and shuffled her way to the observation deck. It wasn't like she was alone, after all, Amane's faded spirit was with her, begging Miku to find her brother and help him.

Miku wasn't sure if she meant Amane's brother, or her own, though, and continued to sway back and forth before one of the large windows. Her lips moved, but her voice was softened to the point of almost silence.

"Sleep, priestess, lie in peace
Sleep, priestess, lie in peace
If you cry, the boat you'll ride
The last trip to the other side
Once you get there
sacred marks you'll bear
They shall be peeled off
Should you fail to lie still."

But that was the problem, wasn't it? The priestess wasn't lying in peace, and instead dragged her deeper and deeper into the manor of sleep. Beneath her skin, the tattoo bruise twisted and burned. Miku sucked in a shuddering breath and pressed her hand against the wall for support. In order to not worry anyone more than she had, she needed to suffer in silence. Which meant being quiet during her rarer and rarer waking hours.

"Sleep, priestess, lie in peace
Sleep, priestess, lie in peace
If the priestess wakes from her dream
Perform the Rite of Stakes
Her limbs pinned tight
Lest the doors open wide
And suffering unleashed on all..."

Miku continued to sway back and forth and murmur the lullaby, senselessly.

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Tess pads up beside her, lips parted a little in unease at Miku's manner. She's not even entirely sure if Miku is actually awake or not.

"Mouse...?" she asks, voice whisper-soft.

"Cast the boat
Take a ride
Cross the Rift, to the other side
Further and further
To the other side
It must sail bearing your tattoos and our offering of tears..."

Miku didn't appear to immediately notice Tess's presence, her large, dark eyes focused on whatever was~~n't~~ out there. "Sleep, priestess, lie in peace..."

"Mouse," Tess says more firmly, putting a hand on Miku's shoulder.

Startled, Miku jerked away from Tess's hand and spun back into the wall. A movement she regretted simultaneously when her back brushed up against the fleshy wall. "Hah! I... I was... I," she sputtered and grasped for words. Right. She had to think.

"I'm sorry!"

"Relax," Tess says gently, and moves to take hold of one of Miku's hands, grip soft and careful in case she's feeling the bruising there, too. "There's someone I need to have you talk to, while you're awake. Do you think you can walk okay?"

Her teeth click and she starts mumbling. In a moment, a private message will get sent to Nanoha's omnicomm.

"I'll be okay," Miku assures her, though she knew her words were falling on somewhat deaf ears. "Who am I going to talk to?" She shifted slightly, nervous. Though she'd had to tell Jean and Tess the specifics, she was still wary (and perhaps still certain of her ability to save herself, though it diminished daily) of strangers barging in.

"Nanoha. She's the head've the new 'magic department'." Something else you missed while you were asleep, Miku. Tess starts leading the way towards the Hub, preferring to get going on the way even without quite hearing back from the woman first. "We're hopin' she'll at least be able t'figure outta way t'slow down what's been happenin' to ya, but you'll have to tell her everything."

Miku hurried after her, her blood rushing in her ears, "Y...Yes. I will." She didn't have a choice, did she? Much like everything else, Miku's thoughts circled around in her mind. Was she okay with dying? If there was no other way to stop it, was she really okay with going to join Mafuyu and her parents? Even though she worked so hard in the manor, avoiding ghosts that resurrected over and over, avoiding Reika and her handmaidens, avoiding Kozue and the spirits that warped her soul.

Was there anyone, anywhere, that really needed her? Was she just lying to herself and saying that Tess did need her around, or Steve needed to see her or Yuri had to learn to be Japanese from her, because there wasn't anyone else around to do it properly?

When she hid in Reika's prison cell, or hid from the twin ghosts and the rope maidens, she found herself thinking of those things often, hoping and praying she'd find another candle of the soul before her next one burnt out and left her open to Reika's senses. Hoping she'd wake up, even as the tattoo crawled along her body. There wasn't much skin left on her belly any more, or even her legs. Much less her back.

"We... I'll need my camera. If I'm going to explain, if you're going to see it, I need my camera."

"Okay," Tess says, giving Miku a somewhat confused look. But—she's already caught up in this. She's abandoned the rules she might have once worked by, because they just aren't working any more... and so the ones left are the rules of the madhouse. A camera? Why not? It doesn't make any sense, but why not?

Tess lets out a twisty little sigh, but continues onwards.

Behind her, Miku hurried along, sucking on her lower lip as she thought. She hadn't quite told Tess all of it, but as they stopped briefly in her room she snatched it up and held it to her. "Where in the city?" She wasn't feeling tired yet, but who knew how long that'd take?

"And you have to promise me one thing," she added as they walked to the hub again. "If I fall asleep, and they have my camera, don't let them take it apart, please?"

"There's a temple or somethin'," Tess says, glancing back at Miku. "That's where they set up shop."

The camera? What the heck? "Why not?" she asks. Not accusing, not saying that she won't pass the word along—but she wants to know what the danger is.

"I see." Miku was quiet for a while before she explained some more. It had to come in chunks, apparently, since spitting everything at once out was apparently impossible for her.

"It was my mother's. Not only that, it's... it..." Wow, this sounded stupid when she said it aloud, didn't it? "It's special. It takes pictures of things that... that people not like me can't see usually. I just... I know how those kind of people can be. And this is so important to me... I don't want it to be broken." There, she'd said it.

Now to stare at the back of Tess's head and feel like an idiot.

"...I can understand that," Tess says, and her tone is softer and a little more comfortable. Wanting to protect a family keepsake: that, at least, fits smoothly into the things she knows, and it paves over a little of the strangeness plaguing her. "Alright. I'll keep an eye on it, Mouse. I promise." She looks back, offering one of her broad smiles.

Miku smiles back, though it's smaller and gentler. "Thank you, Tess-chan." It felt good to have a friend who could detangle the knot of worry in her chest, who hadn't said she was crazy or weird because things weren't turning up normal around her.

"Tess-chan, if something happens, if something goes wrong and I... I die." It had to be said, as much as Miku didn't want to say it. "My hairpin should go to that little Japanese girl, Otani Yuri, okay? I want her to have it..." No, she didn't know the little girl that well, but, passing something on to a girl who'd been her age when she'd gotten hers the first time... that was important.

She caught up and held Tess's hand in her own, Miku's fingers cool as ice instead of warm like she remembered Tess's being. "Thank you for this, Tess."

Tess stops and takes both of Miku's hands, squeezing tightly. Then she gingerly tugs Miku into a hug, her grip loose and gentle as she thinks of all that bruising. "Don't you worry yer head about it," Tess says, though there's a little disingenuity in her eyes. "They'll fix you up so she don't have to take it. Y'hear me?" She takes Miku's hands again, holding them to herself as her suit pumps out a little more heat, trying to warm them up.

To her credit, Miku didn't point it out. If Tess wanted to believe it, then she would let her. You couldn't go around popping people's hopes and bubbles of faith just because they didn't match your own reality. The pressure of the hug hurt a bit, but that was more the pain from the tattoos than anything Tess had done.

"We should hurry, and see Nanoha-san," Miku said after a moment, her chilly hands warming slightly. How was it she could be so cold even though the ship was almost uncomfortably warm?

And off they go to the city: Tess navigates distinctly well for somebody who's never been where she's going before, but then that's one of the benefits of having a suit that pipes information into a little display projected directly into her eye.

"We're almost there," she says, after several long minutes.

Nanoha, meanwhile, was in the Jedi Temple, setting up a makeshift office of sorts in a room right off of the main chamber - she'd managed to locate a desk and a few lights in the City, and was currently busy cleaning the place and making it somewhat presentable in case of company.

Miku made a little noise of acknowledgment, and focused on what she should say when they got there. A long walk up the ziggurat was a tiring one, but once they entered the main chamber, Miku slumped against Tess.

"I'm not sleepy yet," assured her friend. "It was just a long walk."

Tess doesn't have a problem supporting Miku—in fact, "Do y'wanna be carried?" she asks. "We want y'to stay alert enough."

And she looks around. "Hello?" she calls. "I sent a message, but I don't know if anybody read it..."

"Oh!" Nanoha looked up, a bit surprised - she'd left her omnicom in the main chamber of the Temple as she'd been working on the office - and exited the room to greet the two new arrivals.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I'd been working... you must be Tess, right?" She looked sheepish as turned from the girl she hadn't met to the one she had. "And Miku-chan... how are you feeling?"

Miku shook her head at Tess. No, she could walk on her own. "I... well... I guess I wouldn't say 'well', Nanoha-san," Miku replied softly, with a little self-depreciating laugh.

"Tess-chan tells me you... might be able to help?" Miku looked hopeful, even if her stomach roiled in nervous knots.

"I understand - please, sit down." Nanoha's expression softened, but it remained as cheery and optimistic as ever - she gestured to a nearby bench. "I've actually had some discussions about it with my staff, who have a very wide range of powers and experiences."

She smiled. "We already have a bunch of ideas to try, and between all of us, we'll come up with a cure one way or another. So you don't have to worry, okay? Everything's going to be fine."

The young mage paused. "But in order for us to come up with a cure as fast as possible, I need to know everything about this curse. Where it come from, who put it on you, what it'll do... if there are any stories about it, if it's ever been successfully cured or if there are people who haven't died from it. The more you tell us, the quicker we'll be able to heal it."

Tess sits next to Miku, her legs pressed sharply together. She's worried, and it shows in her body language even through the odd (space? pressure? diving?)suit she wears.

Miku thought a bit, settling in her chair as though it were made of needles. "No one's ever survived it," how's that for optimism? "And it's all in... a... well, in a dream world, I guess you could say. The only physical thing is the tattoo... and... well... even that isn't physical to anyone but the cursed."

She shifted back and forth, clearly uncomfortable with having to explain, but knew she'd no other choice. "From... what I hear from the ghosts - their memories and such - it started when Reika, the priestess at the time in the Kuze shrine, was put into the Chamber of Thorns for her eternal sleep. All... All she wanted to do was see her lover one last time. So... a little handmaiden snuck him in. He got to see her, but..." Miku swallowed hard took a breath.

"But... the head priestess of the shrine caught him in the chamber, and killed him. The resulting trauma led to Reika being wholly consumed by the tattoo and then opening the rift. Everyone died, despite attempts to close it. The, ah, the little girl, Amane, asked me to help her brother. She's the only ghost that's never attacked me." Miku took another steadying breath and held up her camera. "I'm not sure, but there should be some film in this camera that has pictures of what I see. Certain things. And secondly..."

With deft, gentle fingers, Miku opened up the antique camera and handed it to Nanoha. "You're going to have to see the tattoo, aren't you? We'll take a picture of me." She stood up, looked at Tess again and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry for getting you into this, Tess-chan."

Nanoha nodded, frowning in thought. "I see... and did Amane mention anything about the curse to you? It's strange, because if Stacy is right, the rift should have been destroyed by the Ohm, right?"

She took the camera, looking back up at Miku. "Ah... so you can only see the tattoo with the camera, then? That's really interesting."

Miku shook her head, "It doesn't work like that. It's sort of like listening to a radio. You can switch stations, but you can't talk back to it."

"Well, people like you, ah, I mean no offense, but, people who aren't afflicted, and have no sixth sense can't see it. So, I'm hoping that my camera, which does see things like that will help. Even if you don't see anything in the viewfinder, it should be on the film." Shyly, Miku looked back at the door and sighed in relief that it was cold.

With ginger fingers (why must everything hurt?), Miku peeled the suit off and down to her waist. Her skin reddened from the top of her head, all the way to her belly. "Okay. Please take the picture." At least they were all girls.

Nanoha did have a bit of a sixth sense - but not the one needed for this. It was just a general ability to be able to feel the ebb and flow of magic. She raised the camera to her eye - and suddenly stiffened. She couldn't see any tattoo on the girl's skin, but she could see an apparittion behind her.

She tried to mask her shock as quickly as it had come, snapping the photo. "Er, Miku-chan... what does it mean if there's a ghost visible in the viewfinder?"

Miku felt her skin flash-freeze. "A..." Was the curse hurting her ability to sense the dead? Miku looked surreptitiously behind her for any sign, but was rewarded with nothing.

The Engraver, however, looked at Nanoha with empty, bloodied sockets, and faded away. "You... you... ah... you wait for the capture circle to light up, and take their picture when it's fully red." Miku couldn't stop the tremor that raced down her back. She turned around. "One more." Really, the only person who had to worry was Miku. Well...

Miku and Nanoha now, she supposed.

Tess looks back and forth between Miku and Nanoha. Ah—wah? D: She tenses up in place, but doesn't move away from Miku... the sensors of her suit aren't picking up on anything out of the ordinary. She looks over at Nanoha again, her hands wrapping together at the worry from the situation.

Nanoha raised the camera again... but nothing happened. "I... I think it went away. Nothing's happening with the circle. I'm sorry," she said with a sigh. "If I'd known I'd have waited to take it."

Miku shook her head, "Don't attract it to you, Nanoha-san." Sometimes, Miku thought that the camera was something like waving a red flag at a bull.

That was, if the bull was afraid of being exorcised by a red flag. She heard the second picture snap and hurriedly stuffed herself back into her plantsuit. "If it's gone, it'll stay away. Sometimes they just... do that."

She also shook her head, giving the other girl a smile. "It's fine, don't worry about me! I'm surrounded by people who know magic in and out, so a little ghost won't be even a nuisance."

Nanoha handed the camera back to the other girl, wondering where they could get the photos developed here.

With careful fingers, used to doing this delicate work, Miku removed the film and handed it to Nanoha. "I haven't seen a place where it can be developed yet," she said, as though she were reading minds, "But.... maybe if you brought it to the sensoriums? Or... or asked that... Stacy-person?" Maybe she would know. "It would probably be best if you had someone who knows how to develop old film, too. I would volunteer, but, I have a bad feeling I'll be falling asleep soon."

Speaking of which, she needed to talk to Steve, too. Before she fell asleep again. "Is there... anything else you wanted to know?"

Nanoha took the film from Miku very gently, careful to not mess it up... though she was deep in thought. If one ghost were here, then maybe there were others, too - including the one that had given her the curse in the first place. "Is it possible to talk with the ghosts? How do you usually interact with them - is it in dreams?"

If it was in dreams, then maybe Roxie or one of the other astral walkers would be able to speak with them.

Miku smiled a bit sadly, "No, though I really wish it were. Then I could wake up." But that wasn't working for her too brilliantly now, was it?

"I've just... always seen them. It's better if you don't talk to them, at least, that's what my mother always told me. Eventually, they just want you to feel their pain, anyway. A lot of my information comes from the objects and things I touch, so... I see that way." Miku explained and breathed a little relieved sigh when the suit finally finished sealing up. "Ghosts... tend to repeat things..."

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