1153/Do Unicorns Dream Of Witches

Do Unicorns Dream Of Witches
Date of Scene:	21 February 2024
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	Hinoiri has an odd dream...
Cast of Characters:	Emi Hoshino, Hinoiri Kirara

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Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Is tonight the night, then?"

The overly large jumping spider on her pillow is staring at her with it many adorable eyes, large and unblinking as it adjusts its multi-colored figure's position.

"Yep," says Emi, towel over her face. She's just finished washing her makeup off, a process in and of itself when you're as gothed up as she likes to be in the evenings when she's no longer required to wear the school uniform.

If we're honest, she had expected this to be harder than she'd thought. When she'd first met the target, they were at the mall and while she'd registered the darkness in her, she hadn't had much time to come up with anything that would make bridging the gap between their dream-spaces any easier. Finding out that this person, whom she now thinks of as 'Camel Girl', 'the Humpback of Radiant Heart' and 'Aggressively Aggressive Girl' was her neighbor makes it all a lot easier. Not what she'd expected, but then, perhaps something like this was bound to happen when she's been getting bounced between roommates for being obnoxious.

"Huh," she muses, "maybe that's why they put me here."

A glance over at the shared wall before she drops into with a thunderous sigh.

An advantage to being an Oneiric Guardian is that she can fall asleep essentially whenever she wants. She feels herself slipping into the dreamspace. First, into the darkness of her own, a place dominated by shadows, mannequins, shattered glass, colorfully gossamer spider-webs and a looming sense of loss and then.... she pierces the prismatic wall between her own psyche and then elsewhere, stepping into the spaces between.

"There," she muses, finding the strand she needs. A symbolic representation of the connection she established between herself and her new neighbor. She follows, foosteps illumating in equally prismatic light behind her as she feels her way forward unto the barrier that represents the wall of her neighbor's psyche ... and then she braces herself to push inside. The darkness within is someting she could stand to learn more about.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
It wasn't darkness for long, though. Emi had.... likely seen some weird dreams. This dream?

This dream was more akin to a cartoon. When she came through, it was like a whole school of... animals. Cat people. Dragons. Unicorns. A massive castle and just.... it was so *bright*. It was like being inside a children's cartoon, with colorful lights, over the top displays and, most fun of all?

The constant music. It was like there was always something... playing. A music. Terrible, horrible, awful music. Like something was screaming INTO a piano and whatever notes were coming out were just... there.

She was in a classroom... with people idly mumbling to themselves, with each other... a dull dum that seemed to resonate within the class. Nobody was studying, of course. And there was just the one doorway to enter and exit through...

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Oh my god," mouths Emi to herself, "it's a nightmare."

Her eyes go towards the doorway, then to the windows. There are windows, are there not? And that music -- she wants to plug her ears. This is ... not what she expected at all, but then, dreams rarely are. Each one she finds herslf in is a fresh new surprise often only in retrospect makes a kind of logical sense.

... when there isn't a dream demon involved to prey on simpler fears, anyway. She's found herself at a desk, grasping the sides of her chair with whiter knuckled fingers. Don't move, Emi, if you don't move, the cartoon may not see you and you. Nightmare. The brightness. It burnnsssssss.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Oh. Oh it got worse. She'd finally... see... Wait. Wait that supposed to be HINOIRI?! It was a unicorn.... with her hair. Oh. When she'd seen the girl in leather, pants, spikes... This? This was likely not what she'd expected her 'dream-vatar' to look like. A little unicorn pony.

Flipping through her books and... "WILL YOU KEEP IT DOWN?!" she yelled.

Oh. Nevermind. There it was. That was the Hinoiri she knew. Even the music turned off. And everyone was staring at her. Just... her. Watching her. As she worked. As she studied....

Oh gosh. Ohhhh gosh. It got so much worse. A world of magic and pretty lights...

And Hinoiri was dreaming about MATH HOMEWORK! Well, it looked like math homework. Fancy math homework. But math homework.

She then, finally, got to her hooves and started to walk towards the door...

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Is she even here within this dream? Or is it merely one of those nightmares where the participant is 'watching' rather than a presenced with -- oh, wait, no. That's her. A unicorn.

Her hand goes to her mouth. She's trying not to laugh, honestly. Clearly, she just needs to trail along -- and while she can't exactly cloak her presence, seeing that Hinoiri has a point of view avatar within it certainly makes it easier for her to shadow her.

So she does.

... if anything here casts a shadow at all. "Why is it like this?" she muses to herself. "Darkness hiding behind bright colors isn't *unusual*, but ... why does it look like *this*?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
No, nothing here cast shadows.

Until she opened the door and stepped out.

Into what could only be described as an empty, lifeless wasteland of darkness. Devoid of color. Of life. And Hinoiri was... a person now. Perhaps smaller. Perhaps weaker. But she was walking through this empty, hollow wasteland. Through rubble. Destruction. Even the plant life here, trees and the like, seemed to be made of shadow and decay. Dripping a weird, inky darkness as she went. But she kept walking...

And there it was, again. That strange, disjointed screaming/music. "I said keep it down!" Hinoiri yelled, but it didn't stop, making her give a frustrated growl.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Ah ha.

..now this ... this is more like it.

Shadow, decay, ruins. And the music. Is that the source? Her gaze turns skyward as she picks over rubble. Glad her dreamself has ever chonky boots to protect from the dangers of the rubble at the moment, she bends down to inspect a stone, to pick it up and clasp it in her hand. Her eyes, a universal violet her in the dream, gaze over the horizon, hunting for the source of the song.

Could that be it? Could it be a demon after all? There's concern radiating off her now, eyes on the sky.

She'll be lucky if she doesn't give herself away with a faceplant.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Traveling through the bleak, empty wasteland...

Only to enter another door. A throne room? One with... more ponies. And a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY big one. Massive, even. Amazing how she could just.... dominate one side of the room. With wings like the purest marble. A horn like silver and gold. And when she looked at you, it was like having the sun itself cast its light on you. And her smile...

Her smile could warm even the harshest of hearts. And yet... now, more than ever, Hinoiri was covered in shadows. She held up... the math homework. To which the great creature nodded, taking one look at it, and then... "Again," she said.

This time, she left through a different door. Always a different door. And it was... this time... an old... abandoned building. Hinoiri was human again. And there was wreckage. A... wreckage yard?

And a fifty foot tall monster, playing an orchestral, waving a pair of swords around...

As Hinoiri tried, desperately, to not look at it. "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry..." she whispered over and over.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
You go to dreams, you see a lot of the impossible, even by the standards of a magical girl. Living cartoons, for example, or fifty foot tall monsters looming over your head. She stops dead. Staring at it. The orpchestral, the swords, the beast. In a wreckage yard?

... a wreckage yard.

Perhaps the monster isn't a monster at all. Perhaps it's merely grief.

Emi places her hand over her face. She doesn't know, can't know, all the secrets that drive a dream to look the way it does, but regret, grief, despair and failure... those are things she knows. Has experienced.

Gravel crunches underfoot as she approaches. Takes a spot besides Hinoiri. Looks up at that monster. Stares at it. This close, she can't really make out the wholeness of the way it towers over her, like the feelings of her own failure. Sometimes, all someone needs is to know they're not alone to lessen their despair. Perhaps that'll suffice. Just a nearness.

Or maybe it'll just get her punched in the dream.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara went entirely still, a leg up, freezing in place. And there was a moment of just... strangeness. Like she was moving through clay. Oil. Trying to control her movements.

When one tried to take over in the dream, rather than let it just... happen. As she tried to get control...

And then they were in the wasteland again? Hinoiri was. Walking. This time she was the pony again, though. The dusk zone. Walking through it. Stepping through... strange gateways. Mirrors? Strange mirrors that just... rippled like oil when she walked through them. She wasn't resisting anymore, though. Maybe that dreaming side of her had lost its notions for a few moments and no longer realized... something was wrong.

But it was getting hotter.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Control is elusive in dreams, especially when one isn't trained for it ... or given magical girl powers over dreams like she has.

Still, she's not here to interfere, really. She had thought, perhaps, she could lessen that feeling, but now she's being pulled along with it for the moment. Something is indeed wrong. The sense of warmth washes over her and she cringes in her own bed, reflextively, kicking at her covers.

But in the dream, she just flails a little, as if she could shake off the heat.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara kept going deeper, deeper... deeper into the dark realm. With each mirror she passed through, the world seemed to get darker. And she seemed more... stable.

Finally, flaming wings appeared on her back. And there was music... A different kind of music. "In the dark of the night I was tossing and turning... and the nightmare I had were as bad as could be," Hinoiri sang.

"It scared me out of my wits! Strange creatures throwing their fits!"

And then she turned on Emi, her eyes narrowed, flame rising in them. "Then I opened my eyes and she stood over me!"

Oh. Something was definitely up. Dark energy was certainly... gathering. Worse. The mirrors were gone. Just... the dark... confined... wasteland.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Meadows to wasteland, a journey unknown, Puzzle pieces scattered, fear and regret have grown. Caught in this web, like a spider's embrace, Rules rearrange, a dance in this space."

Wait. That wasn't what EMi wanted to say. None of that was what she wanted to say.

...ah. The rules have changed. Ever dreamspace carries their own rules. When the dream shifts, she's not immune to their change. She can only roll with the punches. Still, her surprise comes force as yet more soing, her voice high and twee.

"Wait, why am I singing, caught in this melody? Oh, the rules have dragged me, like a tide in the sea."

She twirls once with the melody, arms thrown wide, her skirt kiocking up gossamer webbing and sparkles as the moment takes hold.

"I'm just along for the ride, through the twists and turns, Wandering in a wasteland, where your heart yearns. I see the burn of your memories, in this wasteland so vast, I see your troubles, shades of your past."

Violet hued eyes now spring to Hinoiri's face, locked on her.

"Grieve with me in this quiet shade, not a word of the secrets will escape as your story unfolds. Let your tears fall to nourish memories garden sown, to nourish your heart, where healing is grown."

The look on Emi's face, though, says she a great deal about her regrets. Her regrets are that she's singing at all. Her voice is *twee* and *adorable* and that doesn't change. Thank every single god, spirit, and Kami that she'll never do it in reality: it'd be instantly recognizable.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara froze, her eyes going wide. Something was going on. She... well... she knew OF the concept of... dream walkers. Supposedly the magic had, once, been almost common. they had stories of it.

But she'd never actually DONE it. She wasn't the most lucid of dreamers of it at all. But the music... Well, the music was hers. And she was most dangerous when she sang. So it was only natural, when she felt something was off in her dreams, she sang. She let the music of Kirakirafantastica wash over her.

But the other girl was singing, it threw off her groove.

The pony walked forward, eyes narrowed... Looked her in the eyes. But it was hard to focus, to control in a dream. And she didn't know how to fully manipulate this. It was only through the song she could maintain it.

"You wish to see my past, my life, the yearning of my heart? It won't last, my shame, it all fell apart."

She turned, the wings on her back burning away.

"I worked, she ignored. I trained, she was bored. I did all she asked, she wasn't floored. In the end? She cut the cord."

The unicorn trotted away, the sun rising and--

No. It wasn't the sun. It was that dazzling... winged unicorn she'd seen earlier. The alicorn. Rising up, turning the wasteland to light... illuminating all...

Except Hinoiri. Who, no matter what, was ever in the shadows.

"You hope to see my weep, to see my cry? Well, you've wasted your time, I won't lie. I've lost my home, my people, left to die." She turned and put a hoof on Emi's chest. "Accepting it is just something I will *never* buy."

"There's no room for grief, for pain, for feelings of abandonment. If there was, I'd break, I'd fall, I'd drown in resentment! But she can't win, won't win, despite her detachment! Because I'll become strong, more powerful, destroy her contentment!"

She then let out a growl and lifted a hoof to her head.

"Get out! Of my head! You interloper!
You can't! Be real! Not in my head!
I'm not! So weak! Of magic I'm the developer!
This isn't! Right now! Like I read!"

She then covered her head with her hooves, burying her face in the ground.

Fortunately, the music then stopped.... And she opened her eyes. "Are you still there? You better not dare..." she sang lightly, before shaking her head and walking away, back away... through the wasteland.

Dreams were not a battlefield she was prepared to fight in. One she was trained for. It was... hard. In a way most things weren't. And like it or not, it was not one she could maintain for long.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi listens.

She listens. She'd learn, but if we're honest, she doesn't understand half of what she saw and witnesses. It's outside of her comprehension, her understanding, but certain emotioinal truths resonate with her, even if the dramatics of the experience sung of are well beyond anything she can truly grasp beyond its expected dimensions as a story.

"There's no nightmare in you but the one you seek to be. I see now."

She looks down at where the hoof was on her. A hoof. On her chest. Dreams are just weird.

"I don't want to see anyone cry but sometimes tears help, especially in your dreams, if you think you're too strong to let anyone see them. Why unicornws, though. The contrasts... You won't remember this, probably, It'll be so much like a spider web reflecting in broken mirrorscapes, disconnected threads spread across a thousand implications and visions"

Sensing there's little more she can do here, and that she's running out of time, she turns to search for the wall of dreams once more, the barrier between herself and the 'mare.

"Don't drink too deeply of darkness and descend, there's no bottom ot that particular well, just endless suffering instead. It's never too late to stop punishing yourself."

And then she pushes against that wall. It discolors, becoming brilliantly colorful, a scintillating flashes of light that she dissolves into.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara did not listen. She never listened. She soon fell back into the dream, lost in it. Dreaming of home. Of her new world. Of the damage she did... the lives she destroyed...

And, eventually... she awoke. And groaned, sitting up. Holding her head.

She swore she had the WEIRDEST dream. She just... wished... she could remember what it was about. Had it been important? It felt important. But now? Now it felt like it was all fading away, like a castle on the beach, caught in the quickly rising tide... She then shrugged and laid back down. It was probably nothing.