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 Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:33 am
Riyo's eyes softened as she heard Xiu's words of encouragement. It brought up mixed feelings inside her, as if one side felt grateful and the other unworthy.
So strange that the selfish feline managed to attract some of the most selfless people... Mitsu was sorta like that too, wasn't she? "I don't understand." the feline started with furrowed eyebrows. "I've never done anything for you or said something nice in your direction...." She didn't understand how one person could be so caring towards someone they barely knew.
"I... Don't want to be like this anymore." She admitted reluctantly.
"But this is the only way you know." The figure barked.
"It's not the only way, though." No. It wasn't the only way. Everyone around her had been trying to make that point clear for some time, and it was just now sinking in.
"You're a lost cause." The woman hissed and slapped the younger feline across the face, pupils slitted to the thickness of razor blades.
Riyo remained silent for a moment, a feeling of anger welling up inside her. "I'm not lost until I'm stuck in here with you!" The demoness shoved the woman away and grabbed Xiu's hand. The door was open now, and they needed to get the ******** out of there. Of course, this was a dream. Saying something like that in reality would've been much, much harder. "C'mon."
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 3:02 pm
Xiu blinked at Riyo's words, and then she suddenly smiled, standing up and leaning forward so that they were eye level. "I've never disliked you, Riyo. And even if you push people away, well...that definitely doesn't make you a bad person. Not to us, anyways!"
Riyo was getting stronger, she felt. The baku nodded approvingly at her admittance, pausing to glance over at the figure as she spoke. Xiu bristled slightly, but she said nothing--this wasn't her fight, and even if she wanted to snap back, the figure probably wouldn't hear her. So she watched silently...
...And gave a shocked twitch when the woman brought her hand across the younger bakeneko's cheek. "Riyo! Are you..."
She trailed off when Riyo lashed back in anger, her eyes widening. This...this was good! No longer was she cowering in front of her fears, but she was facing them head out. When the ghoul reached out and took her hand, Xiu smiled, giving a little nod as she glanced towards the doors.
"Ready when you are!"
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 3:36 pm
Nodding to Xiu when she gave the okay, the feline darted off and out the door, the screeching of the woman left behind following shortly after.
"YOU b***h!" She shouted once, then continued repeating it as if it would somehow lure Riyo back. Luckily, all the feline did was close her eyes tightly and push forward.
All around them, the building rumbled. Shadows on the walls ran this way and that in a panic. It sounded as if it would collapse. When the duo reached the door, they would find it was tightly shut.
"Xiu!" Riyo yelled over the shaking while she tried to break the door open, looking back at the baku. "As nice of an experience as this has been, I'm pretty sure we're ********!" And that was probably putting it nicely.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:19 pm
"Uh oh."
Xiu was also putting it mildly. Despite the fact that this was just a dream, her heart was starting to race as the building visibly started to collapse around them. No, no no no! Riyo had done such a wonderful job, and the last thing Xiu wanted was for the dream to end on this kind of note--one where they were buried alive in rubble. It just didn't have that sense of victory that Xiu wanted the bakeneko to feel once this dream was over.
Reaching out towards the door, the baku gave it a hard tug. It didn't budge. Frowning, she drew back to glare at it.
Open.
Like with what had happened in Shun's dream, Xiu felt the dream world ripple around her. Then there was a click from the door.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 6:55 pm
Riyo had no ******** clue how Xiu had managed to open those doors, but the ghoul wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Past the doors was nothing but light, and it looked like a one way trip.
"Lets gooooooo!" She shouted as he leaped through the gateway and out of the dream.
Back in reality, Riyo groggily opened her eyes and groaned, taking in a few deep breaths before she realized something.
She remembered.
Everything.
"Holy s**t." The ghoul mumbled and rubbed her face. "That was..." She didn't even have words. Everything made sense now. "Jeez..."
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 7:28 pm
"Mm, nice to be back." Xiu murmured, raising her arms over her head and stretching. Upon hearing Riyo speak, she turned around, popping her head out from behind the armrest of the couch. For a moment, she was silent as she looked at the bakeneko, and then, "...How do you feel now?"
Arashi, who had settled himself comfortably beside Riyo's head, cracked open an eye as he heard the two ghouls talking. Standing up, he gave a big yawn and then placed one of his paws on the ghoul's cheek, as if asking if she was okay.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 8:14 pm
Riyo jumped a little when she saw Xiu pop out from behind the armrest, momentarily forgetting where she was. Oh... Right..
Xiu really had seen all that.
"I..." The feline started with a frown, glancing towards Arashi before reaching up to pet him. "I don't know... Half of me is relieved to finally know what's been plaguing me. The other half..."
She needed to change. She needed to stop being so self-centered if she ever wanted to be happy with herself... And for that to happen, bigger changes would have to take place first.
Laying her head back down, Riyo stared up at the ceiling silently for a moment. "So much to think about..." And no brain capacity to think about it.
"... Are you okay?" How did dreams affect Xiu? The cat ghoul wan't sure, so the question seemed valid to her.
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Posted: Mon Nov 14, 2011 9:43 pm
Arashi purred loudly, leaning into Riyo's hand as she pet him. Meanwhile, Xiu had stood up and moved around to Riyo's side, crouching down so that she wasn't hovering awkwardly over the other ghoul. Smiling at her words, she reached out and gave the bakeneko's shoulder a gentle pat.
"There's no rush, right? You can figure things out at your own pace." She paused then, caught off guard by the question. However, once she recovered, a small grin tugged on the baku's lips.
"I'm fine, thank you for asking! Don't worry--I'm used to this." She gestured towards Riyo before continuing, "Are you still tired? You can rest some more--I don't think the nightmares will be bothering you again tonight."
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 7:35 am
"Yeah... My own pace..." Which was usually pretty damn fast because of the business life, but this... This would probably be an extended affair. The feline glanced towards the hand on her shoulder before yawning.
"Rest.. Mm." It was obvious by this point that the cat ghoul was falling back asleep, her eyes disappearing behind their lids for longer periods of time with each blink.
"I'm just gonna... Lay down for a second or two." Yeah. Just a second or two... Or a couple thousand. Removing her hand from the melonkit, Riyo lazily kicked her shoes off and curled up on the comfy couch, probably losing consciousness the moment her head hit the cushion.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 12:42 pm
Xiu pulled the blanket up higher on Riyo as she dozed off, her expression sympathetic. Poor ghoul--hopefully she would finally get a good few hours of rest now.
Arashi meowed, and the baku was quick to raise a finger to her lips. "Shhh," She whispered, "Not too loud, okay? We don't want to wake her."
The melonkit purred in response, settling back in the spot beside Riyo's head. Grinning at that, Xiu straightened up and head towards her desk. Once Riyo woke up, she would brew a pot of tea and bring out a plate of spookies, but until then...sigh. Time to work on some homework.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 2:56 pm
Riyo managed to groggily wake up a few hours later when she had enough sense to realize she wasn't in her room anymore. First, a yawn, then a flutter of the eyes, and finally a glance around. Oh... She had fallen asleep in Xiu's dorm, hadn't she?
Scratching the side of her messy head, the feline attempted to spot the baku. "Xiu?" She called out... And slowly began to realize that no nightmares had happened this time.
Oh thank Jack. She could sleep again. Beautiful, luxurious sleep. The ghoul had never realized how valuable an intangible thing like sleeping was to her, and she would certainly not take it for granted again.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:42 pm
If Riyo looked to her right, she would find a themos of hot tea and a plate of spookies sitting on the coffee table, a snack that Xiu had whipped up quickly just in case the bakeneko found herself peckish when she woke up.
The baku in question had dozed off as well, curled up on top of the covers of her bed and snoozing soundly. It wasn't until she heard her name did she stir, brows knitting together as she emitted a little mumble and pushed herself upright into a sitting position. "Riyo?" She rubbed at her eyes, and it took a moment before Riyo finally came into focus.
Xiu smiled apologetically as she slid off of her bed. "Sorry. How did you sleep?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 9:06 am
As the feline sat up, the thermos managed to catch her eye. Reaching over and opening it up, she let out a content sigh when she realized it was tea.
"Oh." Xiu had fallen asleep... And Riyo woke her up. Slightly ironic. "No, I'm sorry." The ghoul mumbled before taking a sip of the tea. Spookies had never really been her thing, but she took one out of courtesy.
"A lot better than the past week." Obviously. And Xiu's couch was comfortable, so the ghoul really hadn't had a problem.
It was odd. Riyo couldn't rightfully explain it, but the situation felt right. Her being in someone else's place and not feeling awkward. It was nice. And even nicer that she didn't have to force herself to tell the baku anything about herself. The ghoul pretty much already knew thanks to that nightmare.
... Which made Riyo wonder. "Hey... Do you ever get nightmares?" the feline asked curiously. And if she did, how did SHE deal with them?
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Posted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 6:36 pm
Xiu smiled at the news--it was good to hear that Riyo had managed to sleep peacefully. "You only have yourself to thank for that--you did very well." Xiu had just been there to serve as some kind of encouragement for the ghoul and poke her in certain directions. In the end, the baku hadn't really done all that much.
The question surprised her, but Xiu smiled. "Not exactly. My parents were training me in lucid dreaming ever since I was young to prevent any other dream eaters to enter my dreams without me knowing." That also meant that, since she was technically conscious, she could more or less control what she saw.
But then again, it wasn't always happy-land in her dreams either. The baku frowned thoughtfully before she added, "Though...if I'm focusing too much on an unhappy event or something that is making me nervous or frightened, sometimes my dream ends up reflecting this without me meaning to. I just focus on 'changing the channel' at times like that."
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 4:53 pm
"No Xiu." Riyo started, finishing off the spookie and looking down at her tea. "If you hadn't been there... It would've ended the exact same way it did before." She remembered now how it had ended before, and it certainly hadn't been as pleasant...
It was as much of an admittance of needing help as the feline was going to give. Though, the fact that Xiu could apparently control her dreams was pretty amazing. She had heard of something to that effect, but to completely control it? "... Can you teach other people to do that?" Being able to whip the a** of her nightmares would be fantastic.
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