Epileptic Trees

[cityship]

The crew dreams.

As they have been for the past while, their dreams are being tampered with, but tonight it's different. Roxie, one of the crew members has done rituals to try to give the crew good dreams. However, the power of the Nightmare King can't easily be overcome, as a result, rather than pleasant or nightmarish, people's dreams are instead taking a turn for the surreal tonight.

Get ready to go down the rabbit hole, Meatship.

The jovial extra terrestrial sporadically giggled at the sight of the imaginary synthetic meat by-product. Exuberance!

Curiouser and curiouser.

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[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

Kala dreamed of darkness. Complete darkness. There were rustling sounds somewhere and eyes. Or dots. She couldn't tell. But all around her there were colors, some bright red--like goo-bug eyes--, and others weren't eyes at all but shapes, like a wash of color that glimmered and gleamed. Maybe she was floating, too, for the ink black of it was everywhere and she could tell which way was up or down.

The lights moved with her, as if tracking her, but nothing ate her, and she just watched them warily as she tried to reach out with a hand to touch something. Kala blinked and watched her own skin glow, pulsing with gold-white light and a touch of rainbow-esque shine at the edge of the glow. It was...disturbing...but pretty all at once. The lights rotated around, making her dizzy, and she called out.

[notsaintkaiser.livejournal.com]

And as she reached out, something reached back, her hand meeting with another. The second hand linked fingers with Kala's as a voice called out.

"It's okay. I'm here..."

And Kala could see her 'savior' was Vivio... though she was a bit strange in her own way. Adult, yet still had her childish hairstyle. Transformed, yet a mixture of her mothers' Barrier Jackets.

"I won't let you go... I'll be here for you..."

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

"Vivio," Kala murmured hazily, squeezing the girl's hand. Maybe she'd been a light, too. Maybe everyone was made of light all the time. "There's so many lights and...I thought I was all alone." Her voice lowered. "I don't like the red ones."

[notsaintkaiser.livejournal.com]

"You're not alone. You're never alone." Vivio said, pulling herself to Kala. "Don't worry, though. They won't hurt you... and if they try to, I'll protect you!"

A huge smile formed on Vivio's face. "You're my friend...!"

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

She wasn't alone? Really? Kala tried to say something and then just hugged Vivio. She'd been alone for ages even when training, even with Audis. The lights weren't really hurting anything, not even the red ones that reminded her of goo-bugs. They were just lights.

And they were still kinda floating in the black, but it wasn't scary.

"...friends are good to have. And I'll protect you, too," she said quietly, lapsing into silence after awhile before murmuring. "It's...kinda pretty, isn't it?"

One of the lights rotated past and mewed as firebugs chased it.

[notsaintkaiser.livejournal.com]

Vivio openly returned the hug, reassuring Kala as she did. Even still floating in the black, she wasn't scared herself. She looked over and noticed the lights, then giggled a bit.

"It is..." Vivio replied.

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

"We have lights at home," she said quietly. "They're everywhere. In the trees, along the leaves, some of the nightberries, too. In caves." The firebugs looped and swirled, flashing out messages as other, bigger lights rolled into view. They were landlights, predators that went after some of the larger prey on Atedis. They looked like jellyfish and moved by superheating air and using it to fill their tops so they could float. Mostly, they were bright blue, and never bothered humans. They floated by, chasing a gromis, which was a large feathered thing that was very good at stomping on huts if enraged.

"Deep forest creatures, too," Kala said and caught a teacup and saucer before pouring tea from a ceramic top. "Tea?" she asked.

[notsaintkaiser.livejournal.com]

"Wow..." Vivio whispered, hearing all that. She noticed Kala take a teacup and pouring some tea. "Oh, yes, please...!"

"Y'know... if everything ever returns to normal? I'd like to see your home..."

[magetrouble.livejournal.com]

"It's still recovering from the...the goo-bugs, but I'd like to show it to you," Kala said and a teacup floated its way over to Vivio along with a few lumps of sugar that traced ridiculous patterns in the air. In a moment of utter bizarreness, a cow blew by them, it's mournful moooooo plaintive at best.

"It can be very pretty," she said. "Dangerous, but pretty."

The tea top, which was not exactly a tea pot poured tea from apparently some other dimension. It smelled like flowers, mostly. Kala sipped at her own thoughtfully, and watched eein mice chase each other through the air.