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

[topgun_textiles]

He seemed to disagree and frowned at her. What would she know? She was probably the older sister of one of his classmates. She'll just tell somebody like the others, and then it's all about the problems he was causing, the discomfort. Then what would he do? His parents were already getting mad about it, he could feel it...!

Reading? Sure, he liked reading, but that stuff about rulers sounded too freaky. He'd been nice before and everyone just picked on him more. Being scary sounded better, but snapping? Rebelling? So they'd just keep it up even if he decided to fight back? Well than how was that fair!?

Kanji's eyes burned, and he looked down. Crying again... they always made fun of him for crying.

"But I've tried everything. I fix their bags, I carry their books, and I say 'hi' to people... I-I even learned how to make cookies and brought them. They threw 'em in the garbage, 'cause I touched them."

His fists shook, eyes boring a hole in the floor as fat tear droplets pattered the polished wood.

"I tried makin' friends, and everybody hates me! So- so what's left!? They won't care if I go between, even if I figured out how!"

[peninhand]

Alright, note to self. Trying to use books from Niccolò Machiavelli to comfort crying children-- Not a very bright idea. Of course, based on what he was saying, he was clearly being on the "too nice" end of the spectrum. In a perfect world, this wouldn't be an issue... But the world was flawed and unfair. Evidently, he needed to show some teeth and not be that kind, but without going to such extremes. That's what she wanted to tell him, but.

Ah. No. She wasn't good at this, it was all too obvious. He didn't need any more lectures. Sometimes, the best way to help was just comforting without giving any advice. And she remembered, he had mentioned someone, a girl in his Mognet post, heh...? Things would probably be alright for him in the long-term.

"I'm sorry, Kanji."

Kneeling, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him in a hug. Tried to, anyway. Hopefully she wouldn't get a punch in the stomach for that.

"Not everybody hates you. I don't hate you. And..." She paused, remembering the others. "I know there will be more who come to think the same."

[topgun_textiles]

His body was stiff when she pulled him in, unsure of what was next. But it was short of a blink before the muscles in his arms and midsection eased. After a big breath, he finally lowered his head against her shoulder and sobbed, everything spilling forth at once. His mother had given him a pat on the head once or twice, tucked him in at night, and his father would make him his favorite meal...

But a hug, so simple, meant the world to a kid who was treated with disgust over something as simple as physical contact. She... she didn't think he was gross? But all girls thought he was disgusting.

Kanji wanted to believe Monika wasn't lying. All he wanted was somebody to stop giving him the fake smiles and 'there, there's. But in his growing desperation, perhaps he should just take anything. He chose in that moment to lean into belief.

"Where... wh-where are they? What do I need to do to- to find 'em?"

[peninhand]

This was the first time Monika could recall truly helping someone in such a way. Oh, she had memories, blurry as they were, but they were just fabrications to give her the illusion of a past, that or they were... Something else. Regardless, she held back tears. She was the adult here, and she needed to act the part.

"I don't know..." Being an adult meant children believed you had all the answers, but ah. Adults were truly just children pretending to have it together. She didn't know. If she did... Perhaps she would have been able to find the right words to help him. "But I know they'll find you and reach out to you."

It wasn't something she could hope to accomplish, so she wouldn't even try any further. What she had done so far had been bad enough, she shouldn't worsen things. And just giving him this small comfort seemed to be enough. She pulled back a bit and looked at him, smiling sweet and genuinely.

"After this, we should meet again and do something fun together, alright?"

[topgun_textiles]

She was telling the truth, he just... he just felt it, somewhere deep inside. Briefly, he thought of the faces of so many people who smiled at him, hanging out in the food court and... wait. What? That was a weird thought.

Kanji slowly pulled away and sniffled, running his arm over his eyes. He didn't even need to consider her offer, because it meant he could have a friend right now.

"Yeah! What kind of fun stuff can we do?" Gosh, this was so new to him. What sort of things did Monika find fun that didn't involve homicide? Did she climb trees? Go swimming in the river? Fish?

[peninhand]

Seeing him so happy to have someone who simply wanted to befriend him, Monika couldn't help but beam. So that was how it felt when you actually helped people with their problems, rather than worsen them... Not that it was a first, but technically it was her first time since her epiphany. Of course, the circumstances were radically different, but that's not what mattered.

And-- Oh man, what kind of fun stuff they could? She didn't figure reading some books would do it for him... And she was past the age of climbing trees. As for fishing, in a Final Fantasy game? Might as well take a nap.

"Hm! Do you enjoy video games?" She actually quite enjoyed video games herself, even if her epiphany had left her a bit sour in that regard. "Sometimes I get bored after a while, but they're a lot more entertaining when you have someone playing with you."

[topgun_textiles]

Kanji seemed to need a moment to think before he nodded. "I like to go to the arcade and watch. I'm not good at 'em."

He also was too short to reach any of them, but that was something he'd keep to himself. He may just not grow up and stay super short, but when this girl wanted to be friends, he was desperate not to talk poorly of himself to keep her interest.

"I know a good place, too! They sell really good candy and the lady there is nice."

[peninhand]

She giggled and nodded.

"Lead the way then, alright?"

She could only imagine how scared he was she would just bail on him, hm... And well, once the dream would reset, surely she would be cast into another. But until then, she wouldn't abandon him. Thus, Monika took his hand so he would be sure she wasn't just going to leave him alone and run away all of sudden.

[topgun_textiles]

He eagerly took her hand and wasn't the slightest bit polite about taking off. If playing hooky meant he could go to the Shiroku Store, then all the better!

It was a modest shop planted among a string of others in this rather humble shopping district. Unlike the students at school, the gossiping housewives at the fences and random passersby all had full features and faces. Perhaps Kanji was simply fond of the place...

"It's this one," he affirmed as he led her inside. The walls were lined with knick-knacks, little toys and loads of candy. But tucked in the corners and placed under the awnings were arcade fighters, luck-based games and one pachinko machine for the chance at colored tickets that earned you free candy. The woman behind the counter looked up from her task and smiled as she always did.

"Is that you, Kanji-kun? What brings you in on a school day?"

"N-nothin'...! This is- she... uhm...!"