Complete Private ✪ Stokbon Nightfire

[Luthien]

She had been restless throughout her slumber, turning and shifting with a frequency that was unusual for the elven girl. The occasional grumble escaped her lips even as the eyebrows on her face remained furrowed for the longest of times, small physical reactions to whatever experiences the little dreamwalker was currently facing as the night progressed.

Her hands eventually found him as the girl turned once more, the warmth that his body radiated offering some comfort against whatever nightmares currently plagued the ranger. It called out to her subconsciousness, causing the girl to huddle closer as she found solace when the steady rhythm of his heartbeats echoed softly within her ears. Low groans eventually gave way to soft whimpers, the tenseness of her face slowly relaxing as the elf finally seemed to fall into a restful sleep… though it didn’t last long.

"Hmmm…" she murmured, the throbbing pressure against her temple being the first thing her mind processed as Lúthien began to wake. Her eyes cautiously opened before a relieved sigh escaped her lips at the darkness that reigned within the room, disrupted only by a pale silver glow that filtered into the space through a small window.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Usually, nights were restless for Ari. He'd drift through his sleep dreamlessly and then awaken almost as tired as when he'd gone to sleep the night before. Not in Terrasphere though. In here, he slept most nights soundly. Maybe it was because she was always right beside him when he did, the warmth of her comforting embrace enveloping him as he drifted off.

It was when the warmth of her body against his began to shift that Yugam began to rouse from his slumber. "Mm-" the man softly muttered as his mind fought against waking consciousness. It was a futile battle though, his only bastion having gone away already. Groggy eyes opened as Yugam gave in.

The blonde head of hair still lay on his chest, the sheets covering their bodies, and crimson, half-lidded eyes looked at nowhere in particular. "Mmph-" Yugam complained, not awake enough to form words or sentences. "You ok?"

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

The tightness that she’d felt within her chest during her latest dreamscapade didn’t lessen as the elf returned to the waking world, half-lidded eyes looking at the small window that allowed the moonlight to filter into the room as she waited for the headache to slowly fade away. He stirred then, the soft muttering of his voice reverberating through his chest and mixing with the steady rhythm of his heartbeats as the man slowly woke from his own slumber.

"You ok?"

Her lips pressed into a thin line, the arm around his midriff tightening its grip slightly as the innocent question drifted into her ears. Lúthien knew the answer to it, the real one that is, but her mouth remained shut as the seconds passed by. She was unsure of where to even begin, and a small part of the girl almost wished the man had remained fast asleep instead—at least then he would’ve been blissfully unaware of the current turmoil within her mind.

Golden strands of hair shifted as the girl softly shook her head at last, attempting to bury her face into his chest as a quiet { No… } echoed inside his head when actual words failed to form in her throat.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Luthien didn't answer Yugam's question immediately, instead squeezing him slightly as he lifted a hand to stifle a yawn. His fingers began to run softly through her hair as his eyes slowly shut again, stroking her head until the quiet voice in his head which did not belong to finally spoke.

Once upon a time, the intrusion to his mind's confines would have startled the man, but he'd since gotten used to it. It felt not different than the voice his own thoughts spoke in, just as much a part of him. But the silent confession that everything was not alright concerned him just the same as if it had been spoken aloud.

"What's wrong?" the man asked gently turning his head to place a kiss on the top of the elf's head. "Bad dream?" he asked in a hushed voice. He'd never known the woman to have nightmares, but that didn't mean she was anymore immune to them than anyone else.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

Little by little she felt the thoughts running through her mind slow down, the soft and constant strokes as the man ran his fingers through her hair soothing the nerves Lúthien currently felt.

It wasn't like she’d actively sought out to hide this part of hers from the man—not at first, at least—but before an opportunity could arise for the blonde to share the unexpected abilities this elven mind granted her she’d accidentally stumbled into that memory. Purposely or not she’d crossed a boundary set by the man, stepped over the proverbial line in the sand and uncovered parts of his past that Lúthien was certain he hadn’t wanted to share with her at the time.

"What's wrong?" His question was followed by a soft pressure as his lips pressed atop her head, finally causing the elf to pull her face back from his chest just enough so she could gaze at him. "Bad dream?"

Had it been at any other time she would’ve undoubtedly cracked a smile as the man unconsciously guessed the root of what currently troubled her mind, perhaps even given him an airy laughter and asked if he wasn’t one part elven in some way. "S-Something like that…" Instead her voice faltered, crimson eyes finally looking downwards to avoid his gaze as she finally spoke. A dormant habit quietly crept its way in as time passed, the hand resting over his midriff shifting slightly as the elf unconsciously picked at the skin on her fingers.

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

There was only a quiet response to Yugam's question, followed by the muted scratching sound of Luthien picking at the skin of her finger. It was a bad habit the man had noticed the girl fell into whenever something was wrong.

"Do you wanna tell me about it?" the man asked as his eyes slowly opened again, and he shifted slightly to better look at the elf. The anxious sound of her nails rubbing and digging into her skin seemed almost loud in the otherwise silent room. In the dim silver light coming through the window, it was almost impossible to make out the slender lengths of her fingers, but the ticking of one digit drew one's attention. It was the only movement, besides the rise and fall on their chests as they breathed almost in sync, and it was all the more frantic in its appearance because of that.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

A soft nod was her response to his question, feeling the man shift ever so slightly as he focused his attention on her. There hadn’t been a lack of questions leftover from her recent dreamscapade with Moon—with Lune, but words escaped her as the blonde struggled to breach the topic… struggling to find the right way to avoid a complete and utter shitfest from developing.

"You k-know how I can mindspeak, right?" A silly question, but necessary nonetheless as Lúthien looked for a starting point that could help Yugam understand, one that was well known to her boyfriend by now. "And do you remember that time I tried to show Sven what we saw back in Camp Hope?"

She’d tried the same thing with him too, but while Sven had managed to receive bits and pieces of the vision Lúthien had been completely incapable of sharing those with the hunter that time—her mind and body too exhausted from the unexpected turn of events that had been triggered thanks to the members of Time EX fucking around and finding out.

"W-Well there’s other stuff that some elves—meincluded—can do with d-dreams..." Her gaze finally dared to peer back into his face, the hesitation clear as she bit her bottom lip before finally continuing. "... s-sometimes we can v-visit them."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"You k-know how I can mindspeak, right?" Yugam nodded slowly and let a hum of affirmation in response. "And do you remember that time I tried to show Sven what we saw back in Camp Hope?"
"Yeah," Yugam nodded again. Even amidst the chaos of that day, sitting in the food tent with Luthien and Sven stood out like a sore thumb, precisely because it was. Tensions had been high, but it'd been comparatively calm to the rest of those few days.

"W-Well there's other stuff that some elves—meincluded—can do with d-dreams..." This was strangely unsurprising to Yugam. He'd heard tell of such abilities from @Rael before. It wasn't a surprised, but even still, the man lifted a curious brow and let out a small "Okay...?", urging Luthien to go on. "... S-sometimes we can v-visit them."
Well that explained things not all. Or at least, why Luthien seemed to be so nervous about the whole affair. Though Yugam wasn't quite sure whether or not he'd be able to tell whether or not someone was stepping into one of his dreams. Or why that mattered either. Dreams could carry the unconscious thoughts of the dreamer, sure, but to interpret those? There was a better chance of the Earth being struck by a meteor in the next ten years. "I've heard about that before. Did you step into someone's dream on accident?" His? It wasn't like Yugam dreamt frequently, but maybe he just couldn't remember it this time around?

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"I've heard about that before.” Crimson eyes seemed to study the man’s face in detail, a habit of old that—although subdued in the later years of her life—hadn’t quite been forgotten by her mind. It made sense that Yugam might’ve heard of this before, after all she was just one elf among many that had such an ability, and a small part of her was thankful for that—perhaps it would make this conversation easier to have… hopefully.

”Did you step into someone's dream on accident?"
"Y-Yeah… a lot of them."

It wasn’t something that she intended to do, of course, aside from an exception here or there: like trying to find a strong astramancer in Camp Hope, or vetoing how much they could trust a certain camp Commander—though his dream was one Lúthien would’ve scrubbed clean of her mind with bleach, if such a thing was possible to do. "It’s not j-just dreams, though…"

She had yet to decipher what caused dreamspaces to actually form, or for the consciousness of others to be aware of such places when she visited them. Part of her wondered if everyone had them, or if they were more of a rarity than a norm within the realm of dreams… perhaps tied to the very cosmic energies of Astramancy that her own elven mind seemed to harness with ease.

"Sometimes there’s… personal bubbles?” Her face scrunched up just slightly at her choice of words, not entirely certain they were the proper ones to use as she tried to describe them to someone else out loud. "I don’t always stumble into them, and I’m not sure if everyone has one, but… tonight I visited a place that shouldn't have been here anymore."

There was a pause as she considered her next words carefully, her gaze having strayed away from his own in favor of looking down at her hands as they gripped the bed sheets tightly between her fingers. She could feel the thrumming within her chest as the conversation headed in a direction that was necessary, though that knowledge didn’t make it any easier to have, before a deep and silent breath flooded her lungs as Lúthien found her voice again.

"It was Dee’s dreamspace."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"Did you step into someone's dream on accident?"
"Y-Yeah… a lot of them."
Yugam lips drew themselves into a thin line as an eyebrow lifted slightly, a look that sat somewhere around where surprise met a cest la vie attitude. The man doubted Luthien's intrusion into others' dreams were intentional by any stretch, at least.

"It's not j-just dreams, though…" Yugam looked at the elf curiously. "Sometimes there's… personal bubbles?"
"Dreamscapes," the man said, giving a name to the 'bubbles', whose concepts he'd played around with in his mind before.

"...tonight I visited a place that shouldn't have been here anymore. It was Dee's dreamspace."
Yugam's brows furrowed slightly, like he was troubled by a sudden puzzle, though he was grateful that it wasn't obvious just what that puzzle was. "Maybe she just logged back in tonight?" he suggested, which wasn't technically a falsity.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"Dreamscapes."

The unexpected word that tumbled from his lips caused her to blink in response, not too dissimilar from the one the elf had adopted herself though it felt more fitting than her natural choice now that she thought about it. Although they were certainly spaces within the realm of dreams each was unique in its own way, an artistic canvas that represented the dreamer’s mind, though the thought of comparing them to landscapes had never occurred to her until now.

It would’ve certainly been an interesting topic to explore with him too, had the night events that led to this conversation been different from their current reality.

"Maybe she just logged back in tonight?"
"Yeah, I thought the same thing when I realized where I was… and, in a way, I guess that’s true."

Her gaze had finally shifted back to the man as her words peppered off, catching the way his brows furrowed as if troubled by a puzzling thought… and hating that she could probably guess what it was. She wasn’t sure which symptom bothered her the most, the seemingly endless tightness that had taken hold over her chest or the desert-like feeling in her mouth, before a deep and silent breath flooded her lungs in an attempt to find some form of relief.

If only it had actually worked.

"But this isn’t the first time she’s logged in as Lune… right, Ari?"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

"Yeah, I thought the same thing when I realized where I was… and, in a way, I guess that's true."
The way Val let the words hang in there made Ari feel like there was a 'but' coming. That general feeling left behind a faint sensation of anxiety, although who it belonged to was uncertain. He could feel her take a deep breath as his arm, wrapped around her shoulders, shifted slightly with the rising of her chest.

"But this isn't the first time she's logged in as Lune… right, Ari?"
This time it was Ari's turn to take a long, deep breath. "Figured it out, finally, huh?" the man said, not entirely sure how she would react to his admission of guilt. "What gave it away?" he asked. He hadn't thought he'd given away any indication that he knew Dayeon's secret. Or was responsible for the change, for that matter. In fact, he hadn't even known that Luthien was acquainted with Lune.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

His arm remained wrapped around her shoulders even as a deep breath filled her lungs, and while she drew comfort from the touch a part of her also found it hard to speak because of it. Finally she managed to breathe life into her words, and the next few moments that passed between them had felt like an eternity for the blonde as her body stilled in anticipation. She felt herself softly rise and fall as the man took a deep breath of his own, the movement causing her to realize she’d been holding her own once more, before her own muscles quietly relaxed once more when he didn’t pull away from her.

"Figured it out, finally, huh?"
”Mhmm, kinda."
"What gave it away?"

A faint little chuckle escaped her lips at that question, undoubtedly heard only due to the close proximity the pair shared. "... Luck." Jury was still out when it came to determining if it’d been luck on Luthien’s part, or just Dayeon holding Arcia’s worst unlucky streak in existence whenever the elf accidentally stepped into her dreamscapes.

"I was shocked to feel her there again that I ended up stepping into her space without thinking twice about it."

The exact opposite of what she’d been deliberately training herself to do, if only because the elf wanted to avoid glimpsing the private worlds of her friends without their consent. @Rael was the exception as the dreamsisters used each other’s spaces to go over whatever new tidbit of information regarding Meriam they found, when they weren’t stumbling into new secrets such as Null, the Calculator, and the pinkette’s own unique meeting with Trinity.

"But instead of Dee I came across this Lune person within her space," There was certain endearment in her voice when she spoke of Dayeon that wasn’t present as Lúthien mentioned Lune, she was still unsure how she felt about this blue-haired woman that now seemed in control.

"At first I thought it was someone else in her space and we ended up getting into an… argument." Her lips pursed together in thought as her mind quietly began to find and gather little similarities that she’d noticed between her visits into Dayeon’s mind. "Guess that caused the space to become unstable, it began to fracture and… I saw some of her memories."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

An errant thumb drew small circles over the point of the Val's shoulder as Ari listened to what the girl had to say. Just another tale of the misadventures of the dream-striding elf. It seemed like Val had a special knack for finding trouble at this point. Or maybe trouble just found her, but in the grand scheme of things, such little details hardly mattered. What did was that, somehow, Val had stumbled into one of Dayeon's little secrets.

"I was shocked to feel her there again that I ended up stepping into her space without thinking twice about it."
Ari couldn't help but let out a slight sigh. "It was curiosity that killed the cat, ya know?" The man reminded Val, having already picked up the trend of how her nosiness often stirred up that aforementioned trouble.

Ari let her continue without interruption from then on, at least until she began to trail off at the end of her story. "...I saw some of her memories."
"Ignoring the fact that that's a massive invasion of privacy, what did you see?" Ever the hypocrite, it was Ari's own curiosity that led to him asking such a question. Birds of a feather...

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

… flock together.

"It was curiosity that killed the cat, ya know?"

The logical part of her knew that to be true, that she should’ve been more cautious and careful when poking and prodigy into things that really weren’t her business to begin with… more so when taking into consideration the high price this game often demanded of those that went a little bit too far on their endeavors. "I know t-that…" She grumbled softly, her face shifting just enough so she could hide against the crook of his neck. So far her luck had continued to hold despite the ‘fuck around, find out’ actions the elf was prone to, but it was bound to run out sooner or later if she continued.

"Ignoring the fact that that's a massive invasion of privacy," His voice filled the silence that had momentarily set between them, the light hint of curiosity that coated his words causing the girl to lift her head just enough so she look into his face. "What did you see?"

"Hello pot," Words gave way to a quiet chuckle at the very end, the irony of it all not lost upon her. "Meet kettle."

She wasn’t sure if he’d done so intentionally or not but, regardless of the motive behind his words, she could feel the initial tension that clung to her shoulders slowly ebb away. A soft smile tugged at her lips then, though it soon faded away as she recalled the first of a handful of memories she’d glimpsed within the dreamscape.

"There was a lot of blood and a metal shard, it jutted right out of her chest…" Her body slowly withdrew away from the man as she sat atop the bed now, the action enough to pull part of the bed sheets along with her. A hand moved upwards before gently pressing onto the same spot on her own body, almost as if trying to confirm something. "… here, close to where the heart should be."

Crimson eyes that had looked at him before were now casted downwards, it was easier for her to find her words when she couldn’t look into his own. "There were a lot of red threads too, like the one we saw back at Camp Hope that lead us towards Magi and that tent before…" Before they’d meddle with things they shouldn’t have, and the world had requested its payment… they’d been lucky enough it hadn’t been enough to outright kill any one of them, though the pain had been like nothing she’d ever felt before then.

"They sprouted out of her chest before wrapping around your wrist…" She could still hear the whispers of their conversation perfectly, almost as if she was still there living in that very moment of time. "... and a heart inside a j-jar."

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Val's quiet grumbling as Ari gently admonished her for her snooping around brought a slight grin to his face, the joy he got from teasing the girl apparently undiminished, even now. His hand gently ran itself as hid her face ever so slightly, only to shift to the spot between her shoulder blades as they both chuckled at the obvious hypocrisy as Ari asked her what she saw.

His thumb drew small circles there as she recounted the memory, and though the blank face Ari wore never faltered, he couldn't help but wonder how the girl always seemed to stumble upon the things that she shouldn't.

Finally, Ari frowned, his head rolling to the side ever so slightly to better put Val into his view as she sat upright. "So...I'm assuming you have questions." Ari said frankly, unsure of what else he even could say in this situation. How much could he even answer anyways? He hardly understood the nature of the threads, and how much could he answer without giving too much away. How did she always stumble upon the things she shouldn't?

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

The momentary lightness in the air as they quietly chuckled in unison aided in easing some of the tension that had settled into the atmosphere, her hand silently searching for his and squeezing it softly to erase some of the distance created when she sat upright.

"So...I'm assuming you have questions."
"Mmm... mhmm."

Moments passed as the blonde hesitated to answer, unsure if she was even allowed to have questions given the method that had given her this information in the first place, before finally nodding with a quiet mumble. She’d always been a curious one, perhaps far too curious for her own good, and tonight wouldn’t be any different… besides, it wasn’t like sleep would come for her anytime soon.

"The jar… that’s Day—Lune’s heart, right?" It felt silly to ask given what she’d seen, and she would’ve noticed if the source of her favorite lullaby had been missing from his chest, but a small part of her wished to confirm it. That of itself led to another question, delivered after she’d taken a few moments to look at the hunter and ponder it on her own. "... how?"

Already the task of removing anyone’s heart and preserving it so carefully as they had within a jar seemed like quite the job to perform, but if the woman’s heart was now gone… then how was the bluenette still alive and breathing inside this game, and out?

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Val merely hummed a quite affirmation before falling silent again, only a few seconds ticking by before it seemed she found the voice she needed to ask the first of her questions. One of the easiest to answer.

"Animancy," Yugam said with a small shrug. "Her heart is still linked to her body," he said, trying to explain the exact science of magic. "Technically any trauma her body experiences, her heart will react to still. And vice versa. She was worried about her Affliction killing her overtime by going through her heart, so this way, she doesn't have to worry about that."

That was, perhaps, the most succinct way of explaining the heart in the jar, though, leaving out the mention of the soul-gem that was also powering an extended portion of Dayeon's lifeforce. Whether the existence of such gems were meant to be kept secret was something that hadn't been mentioned, as far as Yugam could recall at least, so he said nothing.

@Luthien

 

[Luthien]

"I s-see…" Surprise lightly colored her words as Yugam began to explain how this feat was possible, though it wasn’t the technicalities behind it all that had caused the inflection in her voice.

"Yu could explain it better. But he wouldn't tell you anyways." Until then all Lúthien had known of animancy was the tricks that Yugam could perform, but Unmei’s words back then had spurred the elf to try and understand his mastery as she researched the topic in her spare time… though that itself had been quite difficult given the limited sources of books and tomes available due to the taboos behind its magical source.

Hearing the logic behind what he’d achieved now only highlighted how little she knew of it compared to the hunter, the blonde sure that she would’ve never considered the possibility of a body and its heart being linked but not together a possibility. His grasp on that mastery was far more advanced than anything her mind could probably think of right now, something to be expected given the man’s goal, and that singular thought only increased the pressure and worry she felt within her chest.

"She was worried about her Affliction killing her overtime by going through her heart—"
"You've created a monster."
”—this way, she doesn't have to worry about that."

Afflictions; it was a term coined to explain the aftereffects players went through after experiencing death within the game. There seemed to be no limit to what each of them could be, though the large steel protrusion from Lune’s chest was the most in-your-face one that Lúthien had ever seen. She hadn’t thought much of them before, a far away thought considering she didn’t have deaths of her own, and the only person Lúthien had known to experience one had always seemed fine in her eyes.

Camp Hope had been her first real taste of the dangers this game easily concealed, a real eye-opener of the famous “actions have consequences” that she got to experience along with others for the first time. Her gaze quietly shifted back to the hunter, carefully looking over him and reconfirming that everything about him was exactly as she’s always known…

"Wh-What about yours…?" Yugam himself had told her of his death when they had first met in camp, the pair arguing about how silly was the other to get caught into an illegal game especially after known of the high price tag it carried if they ever bit it within it. "... are you okay?"

@Yugam

 

[Yugam]

Even in the simplest of terms, it was difficult to understand how the impossible was brought into the realm of (virtual?) reality, even in a world of magic. But really, it was just a matter of science. Often times, one might attribute them to rules or laws, unbreakable. Ari, however, preferred to think of it as a maze. You knew where you wanted to go, you just had to find your way there, if it existed. Or maybe the Whistle mentality was just finally sinking in after so long. No metaphor would really help Val understand what Ari had done though. Not without a better understanding of animancy at least. The confusion showed on her face, but she seemed to accept Ari's answers, which saved the man a whole world of headache trying to explain the concepts of animancy.

There was a moment of silence, however, after Ari finished explaining. The man presumed Val was simply trying to process what he'd told her, however when she finally spoke again, what she asked was something entirely different.

"Wh-What about yours?... Are you okay?"
"Hmm?" Ari hummed, not understanding the question. "What do you mean?"
"Your...Affliction..."
"Ah." That made sense. Ari had told Val about the fact that he'd already experienced one death, though he couldn't recall tell her about his Death Affliction. It was only natural for her to wonder since Dayeon's caused her such obvious trouble. "Yeah, I'm fine," Ari said. "It's...kind of strange," he chuckled. "I don't have a reflection anymore, for one. So getting ready in the morning is a pain," he laughed. "And...well, I can kind of...scry? I guess? But only with blood." The man shrugged, unsure of how else to explain the phenomena. "So its got its good and bad part I guess."

@Luthien