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 Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2025 1:07 pm
She shook her head. "It hasn't for me - or at least -" She hesitated. It was a little hard to describe, but that made sense for a dream, didn't it? "You can go anywhere - see anything - but I haven't been able to stay asleep long enough to get to the limits of what I could already see. Sometimes there's people, but they can't hear you - you know? like when you yell in a dream and nothing comes out? - or see you or anything." She hesitated. "I don't know if it's the same, when there's two of us. But I know that if you hurt yourself asleep alone, it's not there when you wake up." She made an expressive face. This had, probably, not been the most fun thing to test. "I even grabbed a big patch of poison ivy with both hands to try it, once I was pretty sure. So I don't think you need to be afraid of anything -" Once again, a pause. "It feels real, though," she said. "If you do something that hurts, it ******** hurts. But you can just - make yourself wake up." She had been thinking about this, and briefly put forward her theory: "The Garde was a peacekeeping institution. There's a lot of - oh, you know - treaties and ceasefires and all that. I think maybe it was for that. To get things out, safe. No bloodshed. If that's true, it wouldn't make sense for it to be different when there's two of us." She made an expansive gesture at the quiet beach. "If you're up for it, let's be adventurous. It's - I think it's safe. Probably." She was too exhausted, mentally and physically, to be as flirtatious as she would normally have been in adding: "And you can leave a little mark on me before we head back out, and see if it's there when we wake up." Still a little flirtatious, though.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2025 10:48 am
”Fascinating,” Nis murmured. Turning her head slowly to look at everything, she considered everything Joy was telling her. Though she winced in sympathy at the poison ivy story. She certainly had to give Joy full credits for being so thorough in her testing. She wasn’t sure she’d have been willing to do the same. Then, her brain flashed to the murals and she found herself grinning. “So the heroes of that mural out there probably weren’t just holding hands, then. That’s definitely one type of solution to the problem of a long distance relationship.” If the blindfolds were a way to keep peace talks mostly civil, it was actually… a rather clever solution. People would work out their grievances where it didn’t matter, within a setting that might bend and shift around them. But they’d never be permanently harmed by anything within the dream world. “Gonna be honest with you, babe,” Nis said, still chuckling, “all this seems like a super loony toons way to handle conflict resolution, but if your theories are correct, I give your forebears respect for thinking outside the box. And I can see how something like this could be used as incentive to play nice. I’d be pretty willing to bargain and sign treaties if I was promised time to see a loved one in spite of real world distances.” Now that she had a clearer idea of how things worked here, she was more than willing to be a bit adventurous. Glancing at the other knight, she gave a wink. “Even if it’s not perfectly safe, all we have to do is wake ourselves up, right? Besides, this is a copy of my place. The only thing on Nis that was capable of causing harm was its knight. And since I’m standin’ here, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. But maybe,” she added with a sly twinkle in her eyes as she headed down to the lake’s edge, “don’t tempt me into being a s**t and biting you to leave that mark.”
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eldritch stardust
eldritch stardust
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2025 12:43 pm
“I wouldn't dream of being a s**t when I'm trying to be tempting,” she said, with the mild tone of someone who wants their own lies recognized.
She followed her, however - not the most comfortable station for her to be in. Even that day in Myth’s closed shop, the simple act of playing host long enough to pour a drink had seemed to steady her nerves. But Nis had done her a favor, and if Joy was too exhausted to flirt and adventure with all her usual energy, she at least owed her the opportunity to have her fun with the results as she saw fit, whether that was swimming in dark water or - well, whatever else, within reason.
“Thank you,” she added, belatedly as it was. “Not just for the help. For showing me this.” She once again made that gesture that seemed to encompass the entire beach and the world beyond it. “It's beautiful. I already knew, from last time. But - it must have been really something, in its prime.”
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2025 3:53 pm
Smiling in response, Nis wandered into the lake up to her ankles. It felt like warm rippling silk more than cool cave water. And while that was nice enough, it helped to remind her that none of this was real in the truest sense of the word. Standing there, she closed her eyes and considered. And then glanced at Joy and heard the exhaustion in her voice. No, much as she might want to play, it wasn't fair to the other knight. Not when she sounded that tired. And hadn't she said something earlier about not sleeping well when using the blindfolds? No, much as she really wanted to dive in and try to see what used to live in the lake, she couldn't be that selfish. Thus, she plopped herself down, regardless of being mostly fully dressed and sat in the water. Since it didn't feel wet, she was sure her clothes would survive. Crossing her forearms over her upraised knees, she turned and grinned. "Yes, I think it must have been. I clearly have my work cut out for me to make it look anything like this. And I should be thanking you for letting me be your science partner. This has been incredible. It gives me hope for the future." She paused and then began laughing before pointing at the random giraffe lamp. "But I will not be installing one of those."
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eldritch stardust
eldritch stardust
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Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2025 4:35 pm
Perhaps Joy recognized the gracious concession of the past tense in that “this has been” and Nis not immediately running off to do something adventurous, because the smile she returned was half-grateful and half-apologetic.
“I don't know,” she said. “It has a certain charm, don't you think?”
She moved to join her, wading experimentally into the strange water and wrinkling her nose. “If you ever want to borrow one - or both - please let me know. I can bring them to you any time.” It was a sort of gratitude offering in recognition of the fact that Nis would have more freedom for this without a completely worn out Joy tagging along. “I get this feeling they weren't meant to be hoarded up, and it seems like a shame they haven't been used in so long that even Nail didn't know what they were for. Please think of them as being at your disposal. They are. So am I,” she added, folding herself up next to her with a sigh. “And maybe next time we hang out - sleeping or waking - I'll be a little better rested.”
Their last meeting had made it clear that Nis was not one to object to a huge, although maybe that was limited to a moment of crisis. Still, it seemed like permission. She reached out, then, to give Nis a one-armed hug and to give her a friendly - and wholly unflirty - peck on the temple. It was a gesture of fond gratitude, but it was useful, as well.
“Lipstick,” she explained, pointing to her own mouth. A mark that might or might not persist, no teeth required on either side.
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Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2025 9:12 am
Touched by Joy's offer to use the blindfolds whenever she might wish, Nis shot her friend a grateful smile and then blinked as she was hugged and given a friendly kiss. Not that she objected to either! It was just that Joy wasn't usually this demonstrative.
Or she hadn't been during past meetings. Either way, Nis liked it. And she laughed at Joy's logic before leaning in closer for the purpose of giving the other knight a gentle head bonk.
"Sneaky," she said warmly. "Pretty clever too. I appreciate the offer and I'll keep it in mind if I ever need to hash something out in dreams. But for now," she paused and shook her head. "For now, I think you need some actual rest if there's any night left. Go get some sleep, Joy and I'll see you in the waking world. Then maybe you can show off that boat you mentioned."
Letting her mind slowly drift away from this dream, Nis idly wondered if she could fit a little boat in on her own wonder.
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eldritch stardust
eldritch stardust
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