SLEEPING BEAUTIES: DREAM LOG

[yourkeepers]

Bewitched by the thorn's touch, you have been ensnared in the deepest of sleep. Fortunately for you, the world of Faerie doesn't end with the waking.

The world of your dreams is brighter now, more clear than you've ever witnessed it. You've been it before, you think, there fragments of yourself become reality. But now you are somehow more lucid in its presence, and it's more real - something you can reach out and touch.

You find yourself in this world, and you are not alone. Your dreams and those of other join at the edges, pulling into each other along similar threads.

And you are watched by something even greater.

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[intothehedge]

"How generous of you," she says, laughing a little. "I don't, this is yours. But you could say I'm from the neighbourhood."

[fifty]

"Mine?" He paused to look around again, at the stars above and lights below. He liked it, and the idea of it--a place that belonged to him was a comforting thought. "So you're visiting the neighbors?"

[intothehedge]

"In a way." She keeps stealing fascinated glances away, at the stars, at the city lights below. "I haven't been able to for a long time, but... the boundaries are weakening. And –" She looks back at him – "suddenly there are so many marvellous places to visit."

[fifty]

The messenger can't help the swell of pride--even though he isn't sure how this place ended up looking the way it did, that she liked the way it looked was pleasing. He liked it, too, and something in him wanted people to like places that were his, wanted to show off and share at the same time.

"Well, you can visit whenever you want, I don't mind," he said. "Are there more places like this? I've only been here since--" A pause, and then a frown. "Since those vines grabbed me, I think."

[intothehedge]

"You're sleeping," she explains. "This is a dream. But it's real, too, in its way. Its own kind of real." She quirks a little smile. "There are other places like this, though, yes – other people sleeping, like you. You should be able to find them if you look... I could help you, if you like. If you do a favour for me."

[fifty]

The messenger shifts in the sky a little, considering. "What kind of favor do you need?"

If it wasn't too difficult he wouldn't mind--he remembers beginning that story for the spider woman, and that was easy enough. She can't be asking for something too difficult if he's dreaming, he hopes.

[intothehedge]

"I'd just need you to keep an eye out for someone for me. You see..." The woman looks away. "...Sooner, or later, you will wake up, and leave this place. But I can't. I've been bound here, by someone else – I can withstand her, but if she could she would destroy me.

"I've been holding her off on my own until now, but..." She swallows. "Nothing is the same as it used to be. I don't know if I'll survive by myself." She smiles, a small, sad smile, and glances down, at the distant ground, at the lights. Then she looks back at him, dark eyes shining. "I expect she's walking these dreams as I am. Could you look for her, for me?"

[fifty]

Her plight struck him instantly--he couldn't just leave her to get destroyed! It wouldn't be right, he was sure of that. His concern morphs into a grin as he attempts to look reassuring.

"Yeah, of course! What's she look like? Should I let you know somehow if I find her?"

[intothehedge]

She relaxes a little, her smile broadening in something like relief. "She is pale, and wears white, and her hair is red. She's very beautiful. You mustn't trust her."

She reaches for his hand, and presses something into his palm: a small, smooth black stone, flecked with blue. "This will help you find me again. Keep it, and I can do more for you than show you how to navigate dreams."

[fifty]

He looks down at the stone, turning it over in his hand a few times before nodding and tucking it away into one of his inside jacket pockets for safekeeping.

"Got it," the messenger said, saluting in a casual way without really thinking about why the gesture seemed fitting (or what it even was, really). "Okay, I'll help you out and you can help me out. Where should we start?"

[intothehedge]

"Well," she says, "that depends. Where would you like to go?"

[fifty]

He has to pause and consider that, because he's not really sure how any of this works. "Where can I go? Anywhere?"

He looks around, but all he can see is his own dreamscape, which doesn't seem to have any helpful doors for entering and exiting.

[intothehedge]

"Anywhere that's in another dream." She looks around his dreamscape again, breathing in deeply as if she could inhale her very surroundings. Perhaps she's just glad for the fresh dream air. "There could be ... anything, out there. What would you like to step into? Is there anyone you'd like to find?"

[fifty]

"There're some people I'm looking for--" The messenger's answer is automatic, but cut short. He doesn't know if they're here, those people from his memory. He doesn't know what they look like or anything, not really. Only that they're important, which was enough to keep him pushing forward, searching for them like he'd lost a limb and couldn't quite believe it was gone--but it wasn't much to go on. "Well--I mean, besides that, I've met some people, but I dunno if they're asleep or not. There's this fish girl with scales and this grumpy guy with these huge eyebrows and an green ogre girl and this guy with claws who seems kind of like an animal and there's the house I guess but he's dumb... I don't know if any of them are asleep. Is there a way to find really cool dreams?"

[intothehedge]

She nods, slowly. "I could take you to their dreams," she says, "but it would be better you learned to navigate them yourself." She holds out her hand. "Picture where you want to go."