driftfleet | (no subject)

Who: Mikleo + OTA
Broadcast: Voice
Action: Huntress + Iskaulit
When: Today

( a. huntress )

[This place sure is good at getting you complacent and then slamming the door in your face. Mikleo's having a perfectly normal day, playing post-battle catch-up in his room, when Sorey tracks him down to give him the bad news. After that the rest of the day is a write-off; he just can't find the energy to focus on anything but the gut-wrenching loss. Dezel's gone. More than gone home, but rather...

It's hard to think about it, but there's no avoiding the truth. It's something he's been dreading for a long time now- something that's come up in discussions about Zaveid and Eizen. In just a moment, without warning, it could all be over.

Speaking of Zaveid... when he can bring himself to leave Sorey's side, that's his next stop. It'd feel wrong to do this any way but in person.]

( b. voice )

I'm sorry to be the bearer of more bad news- we've had more than our share recently. For those who knew him, Dezel is no longer with us in the fleet.

...while I can't imagine he'd ask for it, if you're so inclined... offer up a prayer in his name. It's how our kind draws strength.

( c. iskaulit )

[Once the hardest parts are done, he starts doing the busy work, so no one else will have to. Step one is to gather up all the creatures Dezel's collected from various planets - the fish, slugs, and lizards - and carry them over to the Iskaulit. The fish go to his water tank, and for a while he watches them flutter about contentedly in their new home amidst the sea greens. After that, he ventures to Edna's mountain to see if they might find a home in all the nature there, though only with Edna's permission. Finally he spends a few hours in the interfaith center, curled up against the seraph altar, idly spinning about the pinwheel. During his whole Iskaulit visit, he's wearing a quasi-replica of Dezel's hat. It takes him a while to get himself home again.]

((resonance permissions))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm not familiar with your kind. Is it a literal term?

[how the heck does one eat a dream...]

I'm the only baku, but there's other kinds of dream eaters.

But yeah, it's literal. I eat bad dreams when people ask me to.

That's amazing. Is the person then spared from those bad dreams, or is it something that needs repeating?

They're spared for that night, sometimes the next if it's a recurring nightmare.

I see. Not perfect, but not insignificant, either.

Do you need dreams to survive, or is it more of a service you offer?

Were I able, it would be a permanent change. But I have to follow the rules and that's one of them, oddly enough.

I need them to survive. I've never "offered" it as a service, though I may begin to here, given your question. It's not something I've ever had to think about before.

Edited 2017-12-07 21:32 (UTC)

I'm sure that sort of thing would take trust, letting a stranger meddle about in one's head, so I can't say whether or not you'd get any takers.

Still, it's worth asking. A bit of trust can be a small price for a good night's rest for those who are lacking.

I don't go into people's heads, but I get what you're saying. I wouldn't do it if people were uncomfortable with it. I'd rather earn the trust than exploit the loopholes.

I see...
that's a good policy. I can't speak for everyone,
but I appreciate the courtesy.

How does it work, then?

Humans have done a lot for me. It's the least I can do in return.

Unless a dream is caught by a dream-catcher or something similar, all dreams appear in the dream realm as physical objects of some kind. I go there and can eat the ones I've been given permission to eat.

What's a dream-catcher?

It's a wooden hoop with a web woven onto it, decorated with beads or feathers, that you hang over a bed for protection - usually a child's bed. At night, the web catches all of the bad dreams - like a spider's web.

The Spider Woman's people came up with it. When her tribes traveled out of her reach, the women wove dream-catchers so the Spider Woman could continue protecting their children.

Is the Spider Woman another dream eater? Or some sort of spirit,
or deity?

[this is actually pretty fascinating; he's totally taking notes. and he's grateful for the distraction, besides.]

[the Spider Woman is one of Baku's favorite creatures, so she's happy to talk about her at length]

She's not a dream eater, no. More of a deity, but she's hard to categorize because her people have so many different stories about her.

I suppose it's the nature of spirits and gods to be interpreted different ways by different people no matter where they come from. That sort of thing happens where I'm from, as well.

Do you have a favourite story about her?

It's because of how our stories are shared. In the old days, they were passed down through songs and stories, so the storytellers would add their own bits to make the story their own, in a sense.

There's a part in one of her creation stories that I really like. After she created the moon, she realized that while it traveled, it still left the world on certain nights. So she spun a web, laced it with dew, and threw it into the sky and created the stars. That way, even on moonless nights there would still be some light.

That makes sense. It's much the same for seraphim- I learned to love books but they're a very human concept, from what I've been told. Seraphim carry the important stories and memories in our hearts. Sounds a bit cliche, but no less true.

I like that story. It feels like it would be a comfort to people who believe in such a being. Is that so?

No, that makes sense. Where I'm from there are gods who do keep a written record of everything, but that's because it's in their nature. Most of us are like you and the Seraphim; we keep it in our hearts.

I think so too. She's an ally to humans, no matter what story you hear about her. I think that's why she's so universally beloved by her people.

Sounds familiar. I know of a few people back home who could match that sort of description.

I'm glad your world has someone like that. Every world should.

There's a few like her. Some are even based off of her stories. But she's one of the oldest ones.

She's pretty nice, though. I haven't seen her in a while. Her territory is across the world from mine so we don't speak often.

Oh, you've met her? So she isn't some kind of unreachable deity for you, then... that's amazing.

[lords, he's kinda jealous. he's never had that opportunity.]

You could say I owe her a favor or two. I wouldn't say we're friends, per say, but it's close enough.

Certainly closer than I'm used to.
The idea of owing a favour to any sort of deity or greater power than one's own sounds daunting, though.

It is. Things like that shouldn't be done lightly.

In fact, I recommend never owing any deities favors, ever. They take it very seriously.

So noted- I'll avoid it if the situation ever arises.

(no subject)

dreamvour - 2018-01-03 03:13 (UTC) - Expand