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Dream Journal 11

((Quickly scrawled on the top of the page in atrocious handwriting is what seems like notes Anafenza has taken during a very rushed research session…))

Vignesang house accused heresy – consorting with dragons     unnatural abbilities  no transformation allowed?  What mean?? House leader – mistress vignesang – tried at witchdrop   body not found – assumed guilty of heresy.  Rest of house now servants subsumed within Dzamael    

   Ishgard is full of records. While most literature concerning heretics and their stories were burned or just didn’t exist thanks to the War, records of trials and judgements?  Plenty.

Mistress Vignesang was tried on grounds of heresy shortly after one of Nidhogg’s raids on Ishgard some hundred years ago.  The woman had been seen on the top of her roof, screaming at the attacking dragons, within a maelstrom-like aura of darkness.  She was tried at Witchdrop – meaning they hurled her off a cliff.  If she lived, she’d have been considered guilty and struck down; if she died, she couldn’t have been in league with the dragons, and so would have enjoyed Halone’s blessing of pardon in death.

Seriously?  Who believes this shite??

They never found her body at the bottom, so it was assumed she transformed into some kind of beast and escaped.  Because of her guilt, the house was torn apart; surviving family members became servants to one of the great houses, Dzamael.  After that, no more record of the name exists.  Nothing outside of that judgement exists, either; whatever history the house had, it was destroyed.

No one at house Dzamael would speak to us.  We couldn’t even get past the door guard    Given our appearance, I’m sure we were immediately met with distrust despite the dragonsong war being done     Any hope of speaking with any descendents is a lost cause for now.

 Another dream – Again, the light-covered field.  More of the child-like laughter and calling those words again  Aenc Tyr   The sky was a ablaze with light, but there was no warmth from a sun.  It was not unpeaceful, and I awoke with the dawn feeling rested, but I write this to just continue to keep record for my own benefit.  I still do not hear the song the others hear, but even my own song – the vignesang’s song, for surely it was HER’S – has grown more faint.

We return to the tower tomorrow.  I don’t know about kiratai, but I should be glad to be away from this freezing hell

Conflux, Pt. 4

“So if we don’t find a way out of this…we go back to our homes, yeah?”

The Commander shook her head.  “No, I don’t think that’s how it works.”  She looked around the small cavern, then turned to look at the dark tree in the center. “This dimension will just continue to shrink until it completely collapses in itself.”

“And if we’re inside, we just…disappear.” Anafenza stated this as a matter of fact, to which the Commander nodded in confirmation.  She swallowed the lump in her throat.  “Ok…how do we get out then?”

The woman shook her head. “Maybe it’s as easy as just finding a portal of some sort…somewhere that connects directly to our dimensions. Otherwise?  I…really don’t know.”

Stormy was standing closer to the tree.  She reached out to it, fascinated by the clouds of dark fog roiling off of it.  “What is this?”  She turned to the other women, then looked at Ana.  “You said you recognized it?  It represented your soul?”

Anafenza nodded.  “I…have seen it before in dreams, yes.  I had taken to interpreting it as my life force, my soul.  The vines…are the curse I bear, choking out my life, taking control.”

They gathered around it, looking at the massive trunk that reached to the top of the cavern, branches spreading outward just before hitting the ceiling.  “How poetic,” the Commander commented, pulling her scanning device out again.  She waved it around the tree, frowning.  “I…am not picking up anything except…an energy that my tricorder can’t identify. I can successfully scan the rocks in the cavern and the two of you but this…it’s as if it’s not even there.” She snapped the device shut again before reaching a hand out to feel the tree.  Stormy did likewise, though Ana stayed away from it, as scared as she was of it.  “It’s cold,” the woman commented, feeling the solid surface of the tree beneath her hand.

Stormy pulled away and turned again to Anafenza, crossing her arms over her chest.  “Something still isn’t adding up.”

The other women looked at her curiously, waiting for her to continue.

She motioned to the Commander.  “Both of us are ‘Jessica St. Peter.’  We look nearly the same, we have nearly similar histories, abilities, quirks, personalities.  But why are we all here?  If this pocket dimension was formed because we all have something in common, then why, specifically, are you here, Anafenza?”

Anafenza winced, and shied away from the girl’s withering gaze.  “I…I don’t know.  I knew a woman who called herself Jessika at one point…Jessika Saphir.  Her real name was Jessielle though, I think.”

The other two Jessicas looked at one another and nodded.  “It’s a start.”  Stormy turned back and pressed more.  “Why did she use a false name, do you know?  Were you close to her?”

Anafenza bit her lip and shook her head.  “I…don’t know all the details.  I know her family had been accused of…heretical activities in her home city of Ishgard, and they fled to avoid being killed.  Her house – Vingesang – doesn’t even exist anymore because of it.”

“Vingesang?”  The Commander looked puzzled.  “That’s…an odd name.”

“Familiar sounding, yeah,” Stormy commented.  “French?”

“It sounds like it, yeah,” the other woman confirmed with a nod.

Anafenza just shrugged. “It is an Ishgardian Elezen name.”

“Another race on your world?”

Anafenza nodded.  “Tall, long-limbed, pointy ears.  Very regal.”

Stormy smirked, before looking at the Commander again.  “My French is not that great; my JD has been trying to teach me but, sadly, I haven’t picked up too much.  Do you know what it means?”

The Commander shook her head, but instead pulled out her tricorder, tapping a few buttons, and then repeated the word, “Vingesang.”  She held out the device’s screen for Stormy and Ana to see.  “Vine of Blood…Bloodvine?”

Stormy recoiled, her eyes wide, and stared at Anafenza.  “You have got to be kidding me…Bloodvine?!”

For as surprised as Stormy was, Ana was equally confused.  “You…know this word?”

Stormy nodded slowly. “It was…the name of the boarding school my…my girlfriends went to, in the Isles.  The Bloodvine Academy.”

The Commander laughed, smiling bright.  “There’s one connection, then.  Bloodvine, and this other Jessika.  But that doesn’t explain why you’re here, Anafenza.  Were you two lovers?”

Anafenza shook her head. “No…I hardly knew her.  I…I mean…”  She fidgeted, fretting over telling these women the real reason why a third Jessika wasn’t here with them.  “It wasn’t my fault!  My mind was taken over, I couldn’t stop myself!”

The Commander nodded slowly, her eyes showing she was putting the dots together.  Stormy, however was having a harder time.  “What did you do, Ana?”

“I killed her,” Anafenza admitted flatly, and she winced to see Stormy pull away from her, eyes wide, electricity dancing across her fists.  “I was trying to kill someone else and…Jessika was in my way.  And I killed her for it.  This was…years ago.”  Ana wiped her eyes, feeling more tears come out of shame.

Stormy looked to the Commander, then back to Anafenza.  “Are you here to kill us too, then?”

“Jessiy!” The Commander chastised her, moving towards Anafenza.  “She’s just as confused as we are about all this…And she was being brainwashed to do it.”  Still she looked to the auri girl with a slight hesitation.  “You’re free now, right?”

Ana nodded, and the older woman moved closer to embrace her.  “Alright…so another connection, albeit tenuous.  But even then, you shouldn’t be here with us.  But you have to be the key to this; what else are you not telling us, Ana?”

Stormy took a deep, calming breath.  “Why is she the key?”

The Commander motioned with a nod of her head to the tree in the center of the cavern.  “I don’t recognize that, do you?  She did; it’s tied to her.  There is something that binds all three of us together, and it’s obviously not just our names or histories.  This third Jessica had a connection to us through ‘Bloodvine,’ what else could there be I wonder?  Anafenza has to be the key to this.”  She ran her hands softly through the auri’s hair, comforting and soothing.  “And I think, if we can begin to understand how we all fit together, we can understand how to leave this place before we die here together.”

The Fiery Moon ( @eightswordsparrow ), the River Knight ( @stormscream ), and a Wizard, looking for some research materials within the Gubal Library.

“It’s weird how there’s such a big section just for romance novels? And. That it’s so close to the historical records?”

Dream Journal 5

This dream was full of pain. I pray even more that it was just a dream, because if this was real

 I wish I could find this girl and rescue her.  she was in so much pain, and so very scared.  She was younger, not the same grown woman from my last dream.  But the skin, the hair, the eyes     I swear she was a twin, if not the same woman.  But the setting was all wrong – it was dark, and dirty.  It smelled of sweat and blood.  Snarls and howls could be heard through the caverns. And this girl just sat, head resting on her chest, the final remnants of her sobbing slowly ending.  Her legs were out in front of her as she sat, heavy chains bolted to the floor and clasped around her ankles.  Her arms were held above her head, the blue skin marred with dark bruises and blood, her hands dangling limply from above the shackles around her wrists.

She coughed, weakly, before groaning, and I could feel the pain in her arms and legs.  And then she, too, seemed to be aware of my presence. She couldn’t look up – so injured she was – but I knew she was talking to me.

“Please…help me.”

I know I moved toward her, but I actually did reach her.  too many dreams I’ve had where I could not reach out and help, but this time I did get to her.  I knelt in front of her, my hand resting softly on her cheek.  “What happened,” I asked her, and she laughed bitterly.

“I’m hallucinating,” she said, slowly picking up her head to look at me.  “Even you don’t know what happened”

I know I shook my head – I don’t think I said anything else the rest of the dream.  I saw memories, rather than her explain what happened. Hulking men like wolves had surrounded her.  She was escaping.  They caught her and beat her.  They broke her limbs to keep her from escaping again.  She’d been here for days, hoping for rescue.

“Please…daddy…”  I was brought back from the memories to see her head resting again.  She was sleeping, though the look on her face showed she had no comfort here.  I kissed her forehead, and before I knew it I was pulling my head out of the water of my bed.  I came here frantically to write it all down – even now the memory of it is fading.

Who is this girl? What did she do to deserve such treatment?  And why could she see me as well as the other…

As her twin? I know not how, but I know they were two very different people…and yet something about them is familiar to me.

Reblog this.

If you do not care what gender your roleplay partner identify themselves as.

Be they male, female, trans, or whatever else is out there.

If you are a friend, you are a friend. If we ship our muses together, we ship the heck out of our muses. I don’t care if you are a female playing male, a male playing female or whatever is inbetween.

You are precious no matter what you are. And I love you.

send me 😴 to see how your muse appears in my muse’s GOOD DREAMS send me 😨 to see how your muse appears in my muse’s NIGHTMARES

“I want you to know that it is not always easy to love me. That sometimes my chest is a field full of landmines, and where you went last night, you can’t go tomorrow. There is no manual, there is no road map, no help line you can call; my body does not come with instructions, and sometimes even I don’t know what to do with it. This cannot be easy. But still, you touch me anyway.”

— Ivan E. Coyote (via quotemadness)

Conflux, Pt. 5

Anafenza stared up at the tree and shivered.  She pulled away from the Commander’s comforting embrace.  “I…I don’t know what else,” she began, shaking her head.

Stormy interrupted.  “You mentioned a curse.  The vines choking out your tree.  They’re red vines, bloodred vines; what is this curse?”

Ana shook her head.  “When I killed her – the other Jessika – I wasn’t in control of myself.  I was under the control of these…other mages that call themselves ‘Nemesis.’  I was trying to parley with them; I didn’t want more of my friends to get hurt, and so I approached them using an amulet of theirs we had confiscated.”

Stormy blinked in disbelief. “Nemesis.”  She shook her head.  “It’s always a Nemesis plot…”

The Commander looked over at her.  “You recognize the name?”

Stormy laughed once, humorless.  “Yeah,” was all she said, and left it at that.

Anafenza continued.  “I just wanted peace…and they rewarded me for my troubles by using magicks to gain control of my mind, convince me the only way to peace was to silence my friends, starting with Lyta.  I was attacking her when Jessika got in my way and I…”  Ana trailed off – they’d heard this part already.  “I was still trying to kill Lyta when Jessika expired; this cloud of dark aether erupted from her body and surrounded me, subduing me and breaking the magicks that were driving me.  I woke up later in the infirmary…I knew what had happened, I was aware of everything.”  She wiped her eyes – she hadn’t noticed she’d started to cry – and continued.  “I woke up with this scar on my body, the same scar Jessika had born.  Her ‘bloodvine,’ as it were.  Since then, I’ve…heard a strange song…I’ve seen her memories…I’ve begun to use strange abilities she could use…and I’d swear I could feel her presence with me.”

The Commander tilted her head.  “What is aether?”

Anafenza nodded towards the tree.  “That dark fog rolling off the tree?  That is aether.  It’s…what everything is made of.  Aether flows through everything, everyone.  It channels to us from the lifestream.”

The older Jessica furrowed her brow.  “That would explain the strange energy readings, then.  This aether, do you have your own signature of it?  A pool of aether that is unique to you?”

Anafenza nodded.  “That’s how I understand it.”

The other woman nodded. “Ana, this strange energy reading everywhere, this ‘aether.’  It is very similar to your own.  That makes sense; you likened the tree to your own life force.”  She pulled out her scanning device, waving it near Ana.  She held it over the girl’s scar; the steady beeping and whistling of the device suddenly increased in frequency.  “And the scar you ‘inherited,’ it’s practically leaking this aether into the chamber.”

Stormy snapped her fingers. “She inherited that bloodvine curse from her world’s Jessika!”

“Exactly.  And with it, it would seem, a very large chunk of that Jessika’s aether pool…which would then help anchor us all to this pocket dimension.”

Anafenza looked stunned. “You mean…I really have had a piece of her with me this entire time?  I thought I was going insane…”

“And it was that piece that allowed you to come here and join us,” Commander St. Peter continued. “Whatever this aether and lifestream are, they must have reached out to similar aetheric signatures and pulled us all together.”

Stormy shook her head. “Like the stars just aligned just right?”

The Commander shrugged. “Maybe?  But now…we know it’s that ambient aether signature that is sustaining this bubble.  Maybe we can use that to lock on to and get out of here…”

“But how do we get out? We’re somewhat limited on the resources available in here,” Stormy pointed out.

“We are, yes.  But I think I know a way.”  She tapped the arrowhead on her chest, and the small brooch chirped.  “St. Peter to Rafale, come in…”

There was static, before the three women began to just barely hear another sound cutting through. “…ter, this…have you…and unread…are you?”

The three women looked at one another, their faces immediately reflecting the same emotion: hope.

Preferences Quiz!

Open curtains | Closed blinds

Stray dog | House cat

People | Pets

Outside | Inside

Half-empty | Half-full

Sing | Dance

Shoes | Sandals (Neither, come on!)

Cash | Credit

Hike | Drive

Casual | Elegant (Nothing?)

Center | Corner

Sword | Shield

Airship | Boat

Fizzy | Flat

Garnished | Plain

Extra salt | Extra pepper

Spicy | Mild

Orchestrion | Traditional music

Opaque | Transparent

White lies | Complete truth

Blunt | Subtle

Noisy | Silent

Books | Music

Familiar | New

Youth | Experience

Spoon | Fork and knife

Knife | Baseball bat

Void | Ocean

Bow and arrow | Blow dart

Love at first sight | Slow burn

Freckles | Dimples

Long eyelashes | Long fingers

Soft lips | Sensitive neck

Stubble | Thick hair

Slow dance | Intimate conversation

Candlelight dinner | Stargazing

Tagged by: @little-purple-thundercloud  :)

Conflux, Pt. 6

“Is that…is that your starship?” Stormy asked, her voice giddy as she clapped her hands despite their circumstances.

The Commander nodded with a small smirk.  “Yeah, she can hear us.  That’s good…”

Anafenza tilted her head in confusion at this.  While the Commander tried her communicator again, she turned to Stormy.  “’She’ can hear us?  That sounded like a man on the other side?”

“She meant the ship can hear us.  Ships are always girls.”

“Ships…are always girls.” Anafenza blinked a few times but shrugged.  “I assume this is an Earth thing?”

Stormy shrugged.  “I suppose it is.  Sorry if that’s confusing.”

The Commander groaned in frustration.  “There’s too much interference here, and we can’t get far enough away from the tree to cut through.”

The other two women turned to look.  Sure enough, as the Commander had implied, the cavern was smaller now, an odd gray nothingness taking the place of the stone walls around them.

Stormy snapped her fingers, then beckoned for the badge.  “Gimme.”  The Commander and Anafenza hesitated, not understanding what she meant.  Stormy huffed, beckoning for the device again.  “It’s simple, right?  How do you cut through interference if you can’t build a better transmitter?”

The Commander squinted, her thoughts racing.  “Change the frequency?”  When the other woman simply nodded, as if coaxing her to keep trying, the Commander shrugged and shook her head.  “Um, more power? I don’t –“

Stormy snapped her fingers again and grinned, interrupting.  “More power!” She held the device in her hand, and Anafenza saw threads of electricity start to wrap around her arm, snapping and crackling as the woman manipulated the environment around them.  As she watched, a thick fog began to form above them.

Stormy looked up to the Commander.  “Ready?” When the other woman nodded, Stormy grinned.  “Here we go!” She concentrated a burst of electricity right into the device, then tapped it, eliciting the chirp again.

The Commander practically leapt forward, enthralled by the woman’s powers and forgetting for a moment to speak once the device was activated.  “St. Peter to Rafale!  How do you hear us now?”

There was a curse on the other end of the transmission.  “Prophets! LOUD and clear, Commander, how do you read?”

“Same, Rafale! I’m trapped in a collapsing pocket dimension with two other people, are you able to locate us with the signal from my commbadge and my tricorder?”

“Standby…”  There were more voices in the background now, as more people began to talk over one another.  Anafenza struggled to hear them all, until finally the first man came back onto the channel.  “We’re locked onto the tricorder now, but there is still a large amount of interference. Whatever you labeled it when you scanned it – ‘aether?’ – it’s masking your signal.  Sensors are picking up three faint life signs but they’re all registering as you.”

The Commander shook her head.  “Yeah, it’s a long story, but you’re picking the three of us up just fine.  You can’t transport through the interference?”

“We’re having trouble getting a positive lock…”

Anafenza shrieked then, pointing.  “Jess, look!”

Both women looked up, then to where the auri was pointing.  The Commander gasped.  “Rafale, we have a problem!  The dimension is collapsing faster than before!”

A female voice broke through then.  “I just picked up a massive disturbance in your tricorder readings, Commander!  The link we created here is punching a hole through your dimension and causing it to destabilize at an exponentially faster rate.”

“You can’t get a lock, Nizeri?”

“Negative; M’Ral is coming up with a plan but we can’t make it happen in the next ten seconds. Cut power; use your tricorder to send data bursts.  We’ll send you a message when we have a good idea what to do on our end.  I’m sorry, ma’am!”

The Commander looked at Stormy, then swatted the communicator badge out of her sparking hand.

The grey Nothingness slowed its progress consuming the cavern, and the women all let out the collective breath they’d been holding.  Stormy shook her head.  “Now what?”

Anafenza spoke up instead, certain of the answer.  “We come up with a way to get out of here.”

The Commander nodded. “Boosting the signal definitely helped, but we need a quick solution.  While they work on a way to lock onto us, it would help to make it easier for them.”

“A beacon of some sort,” Stormy said, and the Commander nodded.

Anafenza looked at the other women.  “If the aether is causing the interference, what if we gave your ship a way to better navigate the flow of it to find us?”

“Not just a beacon, but a map?”  The Commander tapped her chin and nodded.  “How would we do that?”

“My linkpearl.” Anafenza brought her hand up to her horn, feeling for the small jewel embedded there.  “It uses the flow of aether to communicate; your ship could use the flow the linkpearl uses to break through the conflicting aether here and find us easier.”

“That just might work,” the Commander said.  “Alright…let’s get to work, ladies.”