[private] oh me oh my, i thought it was a dream... [star pony]

[Kagerus]

K

oh me oh my, i thought it was a dream...

As my numbness fades at the places Lilli's flesh touches mine, clarity further becomes me. A blink sends some fog away. A twitch of my ear clears some ringing. And a deep breath - that of all things gathers what powers I have at my disposal into one spot, deep between my ribs. My rescuer asks how she can help (not knowing that she already has). Feeling her willingness to oblige me like a familiar weight on my subconscious, my eyes flutter closed, the only sign that I am embracing the dreamscape.

After all, sleep is a very appropriate reaction to trauma.

Awakening on the other side (after the strange experience of being brought to sleep by a force besides tiredness, one of a settled heaviness, one of free falling, one of hyper-awareness combined with pure oblivion), everything is less. Less noise. Less light. Around us: a twilight lullaby, soft and easy going. Though turmoil and confusion lurks just beneath the thin gauze that is the bandage I use to hold myself together, for  now, our dreams are simple. In this vulnerable state, much of what we see here together is malleable, even at the hands of the likely-confused Lilliana. The fibers of the dream light up like gently shooting stars, weaving above our heads and below our hooves, emphasizing the otherness of this reality.

"Ahh..." I sigh, allowing my body to dematerialize. Before Lilli's very eyes, I escape the burden of corporeal form, assimilating into the mist around us. Hoping - but not quite enough to moderate my behaviour - that she won't be too disoriented by this, I reach to her and set a calmness upon her, modifying what parts of the dreamscape she experiences such that they sooth her nervous system instead of stimulating it. When I think the dreaming mare is ready, I speak, my voice in her head rather than before her.

"I owe you my life and I don't even know your name..." A soft weight comes down on her shoulder, the exact size of a hand, a pressure to convey how deeply thankful I am to her. I doubt she has any understanding or knowledge of humanity (a branch of reality gifted to me by the fae and their own dreaming), but the sentiment speaks for itself. Sending reverberations around the dreamscape like a three hundred and sixty degree drop into a pool of water, I chuckle. "Nor you mine."

Before her eyes, a seam splits, revealing an image of myself with Solace and our many children. Solace glows, golden and beatific, her cerulean eyes finding Lilli's inexplicably. In the image, my neck curls into hers, a reunion that seems - even from this disjointed distance - a long time in coming. Eventually, after Lilli has had her fill, the seam closes.

"My name is Kagerus... Tell me about yourself. Please."

@[lilliana]