Event || Once Upon A Dream

[eternitymods]

Who: All characters who signed-up!
When: May 31st - June 04th
Where: The Dream Width (+ Curti Center & Airships)
What: Event log for the Once Upon A Dream Event! Should your character have their own memory, start your own top-level with said memory. If not, then tag around in other characters's memories! Furthermore, feel free to use the Mingle threads at the Curti Center and in the Airships for non-memory related CR. Please refer to the OOC Post for details and plotting. Plot Memories and the second Airship Mingle will be unlocked on May 25th.
Warnings/Notes: Memories with specific warnings will be marked as such by their players.

Please use the following form for your memory's title line:
CHARACTER'S NAME | MEMORY TITLE | WARNINGS (IF ANY)
We will add links to your memories here as the event progresses!

Mingle: Curti Center | Airships #1 | Airships #2
Plot Memories: The Dream | The Nightmare | The Premonition
Holographic Messages

Adrien Agreste | Then and Now
Aqua | Thorny Pathway | cw: spoiler for kh 0.2
Castor | Lord of the Inferno | cw: fire, mind control
Ena | Zera Hamlet, Reprise | cw: mutilated corpses
Futaba Sakura | Early Days | cw: references to verbal abuse/neglect and auditory hallucinations
Ignis Scientia | For The Life of the Chosen | cw: spoilers, violence, death
Irhya Pendhula | The Parting Glass | cw: violence, amputation
Johnny D'Amico | United Earth Prisoner
Kanji Tatsumi | You're a BOY, you know! | cw: bullying, mild homophobia
Lelouch vi Britannia | Julius Kingsley
Monika | Just Monika | cw: spoilers, possible horror, possible deletion
Nanamo Ul Namo | A Good Memory
Noctis Lucis Caelum | Light of the Crystal | cw: chapter 13 spoilers
Okuyasu Nijimura | Lending a Hand | cw: blood/injuries
Prompto Argentum | I'm not one of your experiments! | cw: episode prompto spoilers
Selphie | The Answer | cw: gore/death
Takashi 'Shiro' Shirogane | The end of the beginning | cw: end of season 2 spoilers
Tidus | A Broken Dream | cw: death, bullying

Comments

quick ren got any hermit personas on you

[promiselisting]

[ Nice save there. Sojiro turns to the sign and is baffled that Ren's right. It doesn't occur to him that Ren himself might've flipped the sign. ]

'Huh? Could've sworn I-'

[ He sighs. If the sign said the store was open he's in the wrong here, at least in theory. He's not going to argue about it at least. ]

'Do you mind making it quick? I promised this one I'd get her home. That sound okay?'

[ The last bit seems to be aimed at Futaba herself, given how he glances over his shoulder. Slowly she nods. She... didn't really want to make a scene right now. Plus there was something... about this guy? He seemed really mild and inoffensive in a way that didn't ratchet up her anxiety as much as it normally would go. ]

you want a kumbhanda running around? cause thats how you get a kumbhanda running around...

[masqueraid]

Yeah, no problem... ( god, how was he going to navigate his way through this one with his navigator compromised? something in the back of his mind was creeping to the forefront. a world not their own, a swirling nebula of dreams... of a great width...

there's a glance futaba's way again. there was no way to tell what sort of state she was really in, thanks to that mask... )

I'll just have the house blend.

( and he'll take a seat. not too far from her, but not too close, either. )

Awww... it wouldn't be so bad if it were koropokkuru or sudama...

[promiselisting]

[ Huh. As Sojiro moves off to get it started, Futaba... well, her stuff had been packed up, but she still slides back into the seat she'd been occupying, pulling it out and opening it up again. And placing it in front of her like a protective barrier of sorts.

She... she's curious though still. Something about this guy? And it's really hard to sneak glances at him with the mask on. ... and work on her computer, that too. So sloooowly she slips the mask off and places it beside her. And will definitely allow Ren to get a better look at her. At least a year or two younger, obviously, and skinnier too. It hasn't been too long since Sojiro managed to get her uncle to turn over custody, after all.

.... she almost kind of wants to ask him if she's seen him somewhere before but. She's too nervous to do so, so instead she just. Fidgets. Stealing frequent glances. ]

[masqueraid]

( he's doing his best not too seem to obvious, or suspicious. when she finally decides to slip off that mask, he only steals a quick look by the corner of his eye... but it's enough to note those differences.

futaba definitely looks younger, unhealthier... mistreated. he looked down at the countertop below, feeling something inside of him stir. help her... you have to help her... his conscience was chanting. even if he wasn't entirely sure what was going on, that much he knew.

reaching down into his pocket, ren found his phone laying there like always. and as he pulled it out to stare at the screen... an idea struck him.

suddenly, the device in his hands started to sound. he tapped at it, looking as though he was trying to quiet the thing, though it chimed on. ) Mnn... ( was the frustrated sound he made to sell it. )

Sorry, it's been acting up lately. ( and the alarm sounds again... ) I'm just not sure what's wrong with it...

[promiselisting]

[ The noise makes her jump; she's always been a bit more sensitive to sound. And it doesn't seem like it'll be going away anytime soon at this rate - hm.

Well, she'd... kind of been curious? And engaging with tech is easier than engaging directly with someone so she... cautiously slips out of her chair towards the counter where he's sitting. ]

Lemme take a look at it.

[ Behind the counter, Sojiro pauses briefly, clearly surprised. It doesn't last for long but when he starts up again, his work is notably slower in less of a rush to get this kid back out the door again, if he's actually connecting with Futaba. ]

[masqueraid]

( there's nothing sudden about any of his movements when she decides to come in closer. there's a slow, deliberate turn with the phone in his hand— and a warm, gentle smile on his face. )

Do you think you can fix it? I have a friend that's much better at this stuff than I am...

[promiselisting]

Psh

[ 'does she think she'll be able to fix it,' he asks. Well, he'd see soon enough. Or... maybe not so soon? She's picking through settings and not finding anything obviously wrong. A part of her wants to squint up at him suspiciously. Was he trying to pull something???

But eh, she decides to dig just a little deeper first. Just a little bit, and then- ]

Wait, how is this-

[ It takes her another minute or so of scanning through to be sure, but... there's no mistaking it. Codes are like fingerprints. She'd told them (them?) that once. So why were her own fingerprints all over this guy's phone? She looks up at him... entirely thrown ]

Who are you?

[masqueraid]

( he doesn't answer that question. at least not right away, not directly. it was coming back to him now— the flight to another world, finding futaba and makoto...
from his spot at the counter, ren just moves to push his glasses up at the bridge of his nose, the light catching them just right... )

That friend of mine... she's really important to me. When I had no where to go and no one to turn to— she made me feel like maybe I had a family again.

( he turns, just slightly— leaning just a little and reaching out, with the intention of gently placing his hand on hers, the one that held his phone. )

Maybe someday... I can make her feel the same way, too. ( so that memories of worse times didn't have to haunt her. so that he never had to find her looking like this again... )

[promiselisting]

[ It's... perhaps not entirely surprising, but she flinches a tiny bit as his hand brushes against hers. But there's nothing threatening about the gesture, or his face. And there's just this feeling... somehow, that she can trust him?

There's pieces moving in her head. She's still sharp as a tack, even now. The inexplicable familiarity with he greeted both her and Sojiro. Her code all over his phone. The nagging feeling in the back of her mind. The fact that she felt like she could trust him? Even though Sojiro was struggling to get her to open up right now. It's coming together into an impossible conclusion, but it feels... right?

He's talking about her.

She... she really made him feel that way? Made him feel that much? Her hand trembles under his, just a bit, but it's not from fear, and her free hand is suddenly darting up to rub at eyes that are more than a bit wetter than they were a few seconds ago. ]

I- I didn't...

[ She didn't know. She hadn't realized. At least not in actual words like that, which somehow made it so much more real. ]

[masqueraid]

It's been a rough, hasn't it? ( he can tell. he knows by how she trembles— wonders if she's scared to trust after what she's been through up until now. there was no way ren could truly understand the terrible circumstances that she'd grown up in... but he could be there for her now.
he could do that much. )

I'm sorry... that I wasn't able to help you through it. But from here on, once we meet— I want you to know that you never have to be alone again. We'll be a team, we'll get through things together... just like whatever is happening to us now. ( and then he finally shifts, coming out of the light and revealing his eyes, which glistened to highlight the weight of his words. and the grip on her hand tightens just a little. )

Let's go home together, Futaba.

[promiselisting]

Ren...

[ Saying his name is like flipping a switch in her head and it all comes back. All of it. The time spent alone, facing her Shadow and the cognitive being masquerading as her mother, slowly inching her way back out into society, the Phantom Thieves, the rise and fall of their popularity, becoming a wanted fugitive, Sojiro demanding answers, Akechi's final, terrible trap... and Ren, Ren being there the whole time. Helping her every step of the way. Giving advice, or just listening... even stepping between her and her uncle when he'd-

She can't help it. She ducks against him, and as she does, she's back to her normal height and weight and build. And while that hasn't added that much strength, she's using every bit of it to cling to him like a rock in a storm.

She's trying to find the right words, and they're coming all out a jumbled mess against his blazer, but hopefully he'll get the point. ]

Y-you did. You do. I promise. You- You're home.

[ It's perhaps for the best that the memory version of Sojiro was one of the first things to have faded out of existence, when Futaba had first started to realize, to remember. Both so that he didn't interrupt in a bout of fatherly protectiveness, but also so that the two of them were spared the probably distressing sight of their adoptive father disappearing right before their eyes.

That being said, there's still a just-finished cup of coffee sitting just behind the counter. Maybe a sort of thank you? ]

[masqueraid]

( as soon as she pressed into him, it's an immediate reaction. his arms reach up to hug her gently; it isn't a possessive squeeze or a suffocating embrace meant to protect her from the harshness of the world around them. it's just a reminder that he's there, alongside of her, ready to face whatever comes their way together.

everything had become clear again... including what they had to do, he thought— reaching up to press a hand on the top of futaba's head.

ren hadn't even realized he'd closed his eyes, but when they open again, and the familiar surroundings of the café are starting to fade... he looks down at that cup of brew on the counter.

and he smiles.
"thanks, boss. and— don't worry. i promise to take good care of her..."

it was likely just one of many battles they'd have to face in their time in this strange world and it's void. but they'd do it... as the phantom thieves. )