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 Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:03 pm
In Dream, she felt weightless...her old self. Gender-identifying with the female once more...as she always did whilst sleeping.
Only in the waking hours, when Gate's heart and mind were heavy with loss, emptied of love and scraped clean by tragedy, did she identify as close to nothing as was possible.
The dreamscape shifted often. One moment Gate lay within Eri's loving embrace, one minute the seraphic-child, Valoel, tugged at his robe. Everything changed in odd ways until the Lord of Dream showed up and brought her back from the darkest places into Light.
Dreaming was dangerous, in Gate's opinion: it could be extremely painful, filled with nightmarish images, blood and loss. With the things in the Ki'Lin's past, more and more often did the delicate creature find herself sliding into the darkness - and only the Lord of Dream brought her back from stark terror to lucid calmness, to a place of safety and warmth that was familiar and not. Similar to how she had felt in Erislan's arms, but different - without a mate's connection, a mate's love.
She kept her eyes lowered to him, as was proper, and felt her new companion, Louhi, bowing gracefully beside her - though the shape and form was nearly identical to her own...only wispy and semi-translucent, as the gem housing Knowledge was.
"Thank you...for stopping the nightmare." Gate did not know how she knew that the statuesque figure before them was the Lord of Dream, only that she did. He seemed far more real than anything else - burning bright and strong in a world that tended to shimmer and dance all around.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 3:17 pm
 The pretty creature who stood before him was - not what he had expected. Revei considered her, head tilted like a bird's, or like a korat's. "You are a host," he said thoughtfully. The gem seated in her flesh and the wispy overlay of other-soon-to-be, visible here in his realm, if only because their consciousnesses overlapped, told him as much. A few sweeping steps brought the young god closer to the younger, long slim cool fingers touching lightly beneath her chin and tipping it up so he could examine her face with focused curiosity.
The taste-scent-feel of the new god's presence held the seeking-knowing-wondering sense that was so familiar to him, so sorely missed; yet it did not belong to Gianfar. Not a mistake. He knew, now that he was close. "Is Knowledge kind to you, pretty creature?" he asked gently. "Tell her to be kind. Or I shall, as I have just done." His hand dropped to brush across the gem, a feather-light caress of greeting.
He'd felt the touch of Knowledge against Dream, the place/state/self that was his own, laid neat beside the wispy whine of a frightened soul, and he had come. How could he not? And what he found was not what he had sought, but her humble gratitude for his assistance pleased him well enough. "Tell me your name," he said abruptly. "I shall have to know you. It is no chore," he added, "but only welcome."
Several koratti had coalesced into being while he spoke; they padded around the new host, curiously peering at her, winding around her ankles, croaking wordless questions.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 4:39 pm
Gate's pink eyes stayed locked down at Revei's feet until he gently lifted her chin; she didn't resist or panic - he had rescued her from the nightmares, this was his realm. If he had wanted harm to befall her, he wouldn't have wasted the time saving her from the darkest depths of nightmare. "I...do not know yet, but she...seems so."
Revei's concern that Louhi be kind to Gate was touching; even the Goddess thought so. "I am...Gate, and she is Lady Louhi." The touch of Dream to her gem caused her to shiver just a bit, the Goddess within flairing slightly in reaction; brightening momentarily and obscuring her host's face.
Through her host, Louhi questioned Revei while the koratti wound their way around her ankles in their slinking, ever-wondering way; "You...seem familiar, Lord of Dream. Do you know us?" Louhi had a feeling that this blue-haired god had some tie to Knowledge...why else would he have come to rescue Gate? Surely no God cared so much about one random creature's nightmares...and it was certain that her host was no stranger to those twisted, painful dreams.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:25 pm
"That is well. A gift given freely is the greatest gift." Sometimes Revei remembered faintly what it had been like to have a tail flickering behind him, its willful furred twitches a constant reminder that this body he wore had once belonged to another. The body-memory had almost faded, but he kept the memory of his young host carefully tucked away, his promise that he would remember the boy honored and well-kept. He hoped this girl, this Gate, would be comfortable for her remaining time, that Louhi would make the going gentle; perhaps a slow slide into peaceful sleep, the soul never conscious of its final fate.
"I greet thee, lady Louhi and host Gate." Revei laid his hand over his heart and bowed neatly. "An unexpected but not unwelcome meeting." He straightened and paced a slow circle around her, cat-curious, though he kept his hands to himself. "I am Revei, one half of Dream, called the Dreamer's Guide." Just behind Gate, now, leaning over her shoulder to speak softly into her ear. "I am not sure I know you, perhaps, but Knowledge I know and know well. Your counterpart, who perhaps you have not met. Gianfar. He is often lost in his books, these days," Revei said wistfully, and paced away a few steps, looking out into the swirling half-formed mist of the undefined place into which he had drawn Gate, separating her from the specters that tormented her.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 8:38 pm
The fused pair nodded at Revei's commentary about gift-giving; it was very true...and Gate, well...she was extremely happy to give herself up to the Goddess of Knowledge, a sibling to the male Knowledge, Gianfar, that Lord Revei spoke so fondly and so knowingly of. The reason that he had come to her rescue.
"Thank you, Lord Revei of Dream. We thank you for your generous assistance and for your greeting. It is good to meet you, very good, as well." Gate-of-dream spoke, her voice soft and lilting, with words blended from Louhi and herself; aiding her Goddess seemed right and never once did she think to force a take-over, vocal or otherwise, as so many hosts were wont to do. Dream's voice against her lightly-fuzzed ear tickled and gave her goose-flesh. "I have not met Gianfar...I have met so few. Only Lord Forest, Glyph, and now yourself, Dreamer's Guide.
Wistful, oh oh - Gate knew that tone very well...it was the same that she used if she ever spoke of her long lost mate, Erislan...or of the children they never had the chance to raise together. Over Dream's shoulder, the Ki'Lin could see a nightmarish version of her mate...rotting and gone from her; Louhi wrapped her transparent arms around her host, blurring them together again. Perhaps she would be a shrewd or scathing goddess once reborn, but to her host at least, she would be kind. A gift to Revei and a gift to Gate for being so willing, so beautifully pure of intent.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 9:06 pm
"In time, in time," Revei said, stirring from his memories and turning back to Gate. "In time you will know us. Or recall us, perhaps. My memory is broken; I meet thee anew." He bent to scoop up the smallest korat, barely bigger than a kitten, its tailtip still pointed with youth. He cuddled it against his cheek, whispering to it; it wriggled and clicked in response.
He paced forward, his odd mismatched wings rustling against his back, half-spreading and then resettling. "I shall ask him to come and meet you, if I can," he said softly. "Those who share a realm should know one another's faces, or new faces, at least, at last." He leaned over to press a gentle, chaste kiss to Gate's mouth. Then he held the small korat out to her imperiously. "Take thou this one. It will be a companion and n** you loose from your nightmares. I cannot always be rescuing you, but this courtesy I can give."
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 6:27 pm
Revei was odd, but that didn't trouble Louhi, nor her host; instead they both found it quite interesting and also endearing, in a manner. Clearly the Lord of Dreams was a complex creature with many different facets to his personality...some that were a bit strange. Gate smiled gently as Dream spoke, pink eyes full of warmth; the korat was cute and he cuddled against the kitten-sized creature while host and goddess looked on. They couldn't help but wonder if those creatures were for Dream only, or if they were something more - servants of Revei's that traversed the waking world as well.
It was a little bit frustrating to Louhi that she could not recall, but she swiftly pushed that aside in favor of knowing that eventually, all would come back or be learned anew. "We would enjoy that very much, Lord Revei." Revei's chaste kiss was accepted without bluster or fuss - he felt...safe and, as strangely as it might have seemed, familiar. Gate was an excellent Judge of character, it was built into her species, and she could tell that Revei's heart was pure and open.
Gate took the offered korat gratefully and held it to her chest, eyes shining brightly in the real-unreal of Dream. "Thank you..." She had no idea how - or if - she would ever be able to repay Revei's kindnesses to her, but gratitude was expressed and shown; she cuddled the korat with one hand and reached up with the other to touch his angular cheek as she rose up to kiss the corner of his mouth.
Louhi whispered to her host and the Ki'Lin smiled up at Dream, korat once more secure in both arms, "There is something we would like to give you, When we are able. Will you come?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:41 pm
He liked her, Revei decided; both of her, of what he'd seen in this brief meeting. "Yes," he answered, and smiled. "We will meet again awake." He reached out and brushed the tip of his finger across her forehead. "There - dream peaceful and deep, now, and awaken rested
when you are done
are done
rested ...
... and the figure dissolved into slowly shifting colors, pale and drifting, like an aurora; a nothing-place, but peaceful, soothing. Revei had gone.
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 9:53 pm
Korat held close but gently, Gate watched him smile; when he reached out she closed her eyes and accepted his gift of deep, restful, peaceful sleep.
When her eyes opened again, Dream was gone and only colors and shifting nothing. Moments later the world came into focus and Gate found hirself looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling: Glyph's rooms.
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