melodiesofeternity | Event || Once Upon A Dream

Event || Once Upon A Dream

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[For a majority of the memory, Naoto remains the ever passive observer. She's gotten used to how many of them play out and how they are meant to be interrupted. There would be an opening, or she might have to make one herself. Still, she sits quietly elsewhere in the café, listening to the boxes being shuffled around upstairs while watching Futaba work away at her laptop and fiddle with the bug.]

[Just what does she intend to do with that?]

[She's a little more attentive at the voices, eyes narrowing at the accusations being tossed.]

And what gives you the right to say that?

[ The voices don't actually respond to Naoto, more like memories playing on repeat. Eventually some of Futaba's hallucinations ended up having more subtance, but her distortion hasn't progressed far enough yet.

Futaba who'd been just about to cry out herself, freezes. Someone else said something? Somebody could hear the voices too? And they were... they were telling the voices off? ...wait someone else was here?

The voices die off, with one last angry voice shouting about how it was all her fault. And after a few seconds, Futaba carefully, carefully peeks around the edge of the counter to look at the seating area. ]

Wh-who's there?

[Naoto could imagine what those voices were blaming Futaba for, but they could be more subtle. Also, honestly? The blame game? They didn't sound like Futaba's voice, but they could be part of her thoughts... Well, looks like she had more people to speak to about faulting others.]

[Slowly rising from her seat, Naoto looks towards Futaba.]

It sounded as though you needed the interruption...

Y-yeah. I guess.

[ Nobody ever had ever stepped up before to interrupt or stop them. Not even when the real thing had been happening. She um. She doesn't know how to actually talk to anybody about this? This is absolutely a first for her. ]

You... you heard what they were saying?

... I did, but we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to.

[But... they might have to. If not here, at some point. In the memory, it's obviously something that haunted her.]

What are you working on if you don't mind my asking?

[ If Naoto heard all that... she can't help but wonder why Naoto is even willing to still be talking to her. Whenever people found out what happened they usually just... ngh. It just doesn't feel like she can trust anybody besides maybe Sojiro, and even he's only had her for a month or two, so she doesn't... she doesn't know how long she has before he'll give up on her too. Because he will, won't he?

Unfortunately, in this state... Futaba has an unfortunate habit of being... unhelpful. She does mind the asking a bit, but she doesn't... exactly want to let it on. ]

Stuff. [ ... ] Looking on the internet.

Very well.

[She would have to approach this with a little more tact... then again, the point wasn't to find out more about Futaba. Instead, it was to get her out. What memories would help at this time?]

This is going to be a café, correct? Would you happen to know what might pair well with the coffee?

[ A better call, definitely. Futaba's first instinct is to light up. ]

Curry! Sojiro's got this curry that goes really well with-

[ But suddenly she falls silent, confused and unsettled, a hand snaking up to cover her mouth. Where... had that come from? The cafe wasn't even open yet, and yet she'd been talking like it had been. She hasn't even tried Sojiro's curry. He's offered but every time he tried, she'd- it smelled just like her mom's and she couldn't eat it. Just couldn't. ]

... dunno where that came from.

[Sojiro... she's going to keep that name in mind.]

It's fine. I was asking after all.

My roommate Amamiya-san tends to pair curry with coffee, but I can't recall the name of the brand.

[ Amamiya. That name definitely hits something else in her memory. Without even really thinking, she starts talking ]

Um... P-probably the house bl-

[ Okay what? She didn't... she didn't even know who this guy was (right?). And she didn't know that much about coffee (yet). She looks straight at Naoto, puffing up a bit defensively. And no small amount of anxiety. ]

How are you doing this?

[ And more importantly, what was she doing??? This was freaky weird, but not like the hallucinations. She knew where those were coming from. Sort of. ]

[Naoto looked at Futaba with a straight face like she hadn't done anything at all.]

There's nothing I'm really doing... However, it sounds like you remember something subconsciously which is good.

I need you to remember consciously, Futaba-san. We can't remain in the Dream Width for too long after all.

The... what?

[ Things of note: 1. That name sounds familiar, 2. She knows Futaba's name even though she's pretty sure she never gave it? And 3. There's a feeling of deja vu here. Something somehow about... remembering what's real... and what isn't... ]

Wh-what exactly am I supposed to be remembering?

Try not to think to hard on it and let it come back on its own.

[Because now that she's focused, trying to push the memory will only hinder.]

Leblanc Coffee. Makoto Niijima. Ren Amamiya. Do those sound familiar?

[ There's alarm bells going off hard in the back of her head, but nowadays they're lowkey going off all the time, so it's hard to know what to do about it. There's also the slightly annoyed part of her that wants to be contrary for contrariness' sake. Those names though...

Slowly she ends up pulling herself out of sight, back behind the counter. However, a second or two later she still speaks. ]

Leblanc's gonna be the name of this place. That's what Sojiro said. [ So duh, that one's familiar. ] I... I dunno the others, but...

[ they sound familiar. ]

[Naoto nodded. As expected, she was focused on now and what was immediate.]

... If I said 'Shadow'?

[She watches quietly, waiting.]

[ A part of her - the same part that hasn't been panicking over these half-remembered names and faces - stiffened. Honestly it was easier to deal with than the two completely different reactions. Here at least, she could just be suspicious.

There's a significant pause. She's got the strong feeling that Naoto isn't talking about the absence of light. ]

You mean the psychological concept?

Yes, something like that.

[Seemed to get the reaction she was hoping for... and she might as well push forward.]

Just like 'Persona'.

[ Kanji getting her out of her memory dream was more of a gradual, slow process, of building a bridge of trust then using it to remind her of reality. This is like throwing a bucket of cold water over her in comparison.

Effective, though.

Futaba jumps to her feet, whipping around and grabbing the counter to keep herself from falling and to steady herself against the mental whiplash. ]

What the hell, how do you know about that?!

[ The world rumbles around them, the world of the memory starting to fall apart and dissolve. ]

[Yes, that'll work. Naoto nods.]

Something that we all must discuss. Of course, that requires us leaving this memory behind.

Get ready; we have a small distance to cover getting back to the ship.

[ Oh boy does she want to argue about that, but it's hard to deny the world falling apart around them. ]

Ngh... fine.

[ She really really hates running. ]

Which way?

[Of course she would. Naoto would too in the same position.]

Towards the door before it's completely gone.

[ She nods, scrambling to get around the counter and head for the door. Halfway there she hesitates, glancing towards the stairwell. But it wasn't the real Sojiro, she knew that. Just a part of the memory, like a cognitive being in the Metaverse. No point trying to grab anything either for the same reason. Even if, just for a moment, she was home.

With a frustrated noise she sets off again, expecting Naoto to already be ahead of her. ]

[She is ahead, but she's not going too far. In fact, she waits for Futaba to catch up before walking on. Well, there's going to be a long talk... once everything's said and done in Dream Width.]

[ Oh absolutely.

That being said, even once back on board she'll still glance back, watching the last traces of Cafe LeBlanc and the streets of Yongen-Jaya disappear. All while trying to not look as pathetically homesick as she felt in this moment.

Not as hard as it could have been, because now that she's got a moment to breathe, there's a small headache bubbling behind her eyebrows. Not as bad as the one when the others had helped her, but then again she was a lot worse off by that point. She rubs her forehead, plopping down on the floor then and there. ]

Ugh... forgot how much that sucked.

[ The headache that came from breaking through a badly distorted cognition, that is. She'll never really forget how much being in that state sucked.

For all this though, the look she's giving Naoto is still sharp. You've got some questions to answer, friend. ]

Yes... Leaving is always unpleasant.

[After Kanji's memory she hadn't really intended on going into another one much less Futaba's, but it just... happened. Considering how they all ended up in the memories in the first place, maybe it shouldn't be surprising.]

[Still, now they're out, and Naoto looks at Futaba with similar blank expression before. Yes, she does have questions to answer.]

It would be ideal to have Kanji-kun, Amamiya-san, and Makoto-san for this discussion.

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