fireindreams

[It had been a quiet night - not so for Puella though. Perhaps it was because she had been working hard on figuring out that hourglass, but her mind was still in a buzz even as she slept in her room. The dream seemed like a series of snapshots, but the images begun to get more vivid. A sea full of clocktowers, a book store off a street corner, a bright sun, large thrones, and an identical hourglass that was full of light - the brightest she had ever seen. Writings would also occasionally flash in. It was not too uncommon for Puella to see runes (or new possible rune calculations) in dreams, but something about these ones were...different. Words kept repeating, some of it looked like complete nonsense, it was hard to understand what it was at all.]

[Puella was starting to get physically uncomfortable. It didn't hurt, but it was an overwhelming amount of information. None of it really seemed to mean anything either. It was so far from her normal dreams that felt almost like it could've been a dream from someone else entirely.]

Edited 2019-09-14 13:26 (UTC)

[As the dream continues, fueled by the flickering of writing, runes and the sun, something else slips inside. Something that was not part of this dream yet was linked due to pure nature.

He wandered, at times. When Grimm slept and the God was left little to do but to let his vessel sleep. He could poke him awake, certainly, but it would be cruel to continue to do so. Sleep and wander, and see the dreams of others that he consumed.

On the wind (was there wind?) there is a smell. Of burning wood, smoke and fire. Curling around the thrones and writing, lighting them up and consuming them quietly.

And then it comes for Puella herself. Swirling around and bring song, a voice composed of many voices.

It may be her's. It may be someone else's that Puella knows. It may even be Grimm himself. But it's wrong in a way that's not normal. A recording, broken and spliced to form this voice.]

...child...

[It sure made things even more confusing, with the dream now being partially devoured by fire. Either it was meant to happen or there was something interfering with it still.]

[The voice was not really recognizable, partly because it sounded like a few voices overlapping each other. It was a bit intrusive as well, enough so that Puella scrunched up slightly more in the outer world.]

...Who are you?

[The fire in question seems to be rather curious about this and that, now that it is in the dream proper. He could only touch things in dreams and nightmares, poke and prod and try to understand.

The endless curiosity of a God. Not as sever as another one he knows, but it's present.]

Flame...nightmare...dreams. The Heart.

Binding. You?

[That hardly did much to answer her questions, if anything it just added more. But there was most definitely someone...'here'. How ever way that works.]

Binding? [Were they referring to the dream, or themselves? She's sure she was bound to nothing, but with all this happening what if something was? It did not sound too great. She felt warily.]

Are you doing this?

[Puella will actually get a straight answer this time, or as straight of an answer that the Nightmare King gave.]

No. Sun, throne, runes. Yours. Dreaming, walking.

[He doesn't say anything about the fire because that's his.]

Wandering. Questions....answers.

[It makes sense to him to comment on it. There are a lot of questions here, in this place out of place in a girl's mind.]

[At least she understood that a bit better. Not that it still explains anything, Puella was still just as lost.]

I don't...know.

[None of it were things she had ever seen before. Except for the writing. But none of that made sense either.]

Look. Touch. Yours.

[It's her dream, after all. So says the God of Nightmares.]

Can look...can help...

[If she wants. But he cannot touch.]

[He's right. This was her dream. She should have some control over it. Puella never tried interacting with it though, but since now the dream had become much more lucid maybe it was possible.]

[The dream warped again from darkness to outside the bookstore where she hesitantly walked up the steps to take a peek inside. It was too hard to see so she reached for the doorknob to just go in, only to be quickly stopped by static and noise. Another strand of rune gibberish emerged by the handle, which kept spreading more and more until Puella stepped back - almost falling down the steps.]

[Soon, the scenery changed again to the underwater clocktowers in the distance. Which seems peaceful at the moment, and that was good because it had gotten a bit freaky there for a moment.]

[If the flames seem disturbed by the sudden change in the dream, it doesn't react. It does disappear for a little while as the dream shifts from one form to another before re-appearing.

When he says he cannot touch, he meant it. Dreams, and thus Puella herself, were beyond him. Nightmares he can form but refused to touch either. They belong to others and were simply food. His hands would change nothing.]

Noise...time. End. Nightmares....nightmare.

[Said as if there's a difference between 'nightmares' and 'nightmare'.]

[If there is a difference, Puella doesn't know what it is. If this were a nightmare though she suspected it would still be pretty scary right now, but it wasn't really. So she does what any hat child would do and toughen up and move forward.]

[Or uh, move somewhere. This place felt vast and went on forever. Hard to explore when everything looked the same too.]

[She's not going to find any answers this way.]

[Time did seem like a theme between most of the images though. The Time's End, this place here, the hourglass--]

-! [Puella had an epiphany while crouched down and looking at the abyss below. Not a very big epiphany, but it was possibly something.] I think I have heard of a place like this before!

[It might be ridiculous, or stupid, but hear her out...]

[The flames light her way and watches with a detached curiosity. It is something the Nightmare King has not seen or perhaps he had seen it and it slipped by along with the rest of his memories.

It was not something that normally bothered him, but...

Puella speaks up and has his attention. The flames sweep around her, like bats. Warm and perhaps...familiar.]

Speak...

[There was a nagging feeling that he should be familiar somehow. It wasn't really until Puella got closer to the flames that she recognized something. Grimm...?]

[--But uh, right. She should explain her observation first.] Well...

There was a story that my mum and dad used to tell me almost every night, when I was really little! Of these people that had magical hourglasses called Time Pieces, and they used them to go to the World of Dreams.

[It's way too convenient, if this was also a dream.]

I think this must be it!

Edited 2019-09-16 20:05 (UTC)

[He thinks a little bit on the topic she brings. World of Dreams. World of Dreams.]

Dreams...time...slipping through time. I know.

[Somewhere in the Nightmare King's ruined memories he recalls hearing about this. Something outside of his domain, a place that the Vampire God was not to touch. Dreams. Memories. There was little difference.]

Stories. Always stories.

[A space between time and worlds comprised up by memories long past... Why exactly Puella was seeing something like this now, she had no idea.]

I thought it was just a story. [But then, magic and stuff is still just a story to most people too, and she also only found out the truth about that recently.]

[Although thinking about it now, why else would her parents been copying these things if there wasn't any reason behind it? Kind of stupid that she didn't notice it sooner.]

[But hey, if she's right, it something more to brag about!] But I should find how to get back...

Stories, memories. Memories, stories.

[It is the same in his mind. After all where do stories come from but from the mind and experience of others?

The flames flicker in and out when she says that she should start getting back.]

Waking...your choice. Your dream. Your side.

[Puella isn't lost. She doesn't have to worry about it.]

[If waking is all she had to do, she could probably do that. Though not sure how to force it either. Maybe she should look for more answers first before she wakes up by accident.]

[She should also do something to address whoever this was accompanying her this whole time.] ...Where would you go?

Back...sleep....vessel...

[He would stop wandering and go back to his vessel's mind. They were impossible to separate until the end. Until Grimm's life ends.

Until the change.

The flames continue to flicker, casting shadows all over this dream. Waiting for Puella to make the choice of waking or walking.]

[Vessel? Well, at least he had someplace to go.]

Oh...you can stay here for now if you want, I don't mind!

[He talks weird, but he doesn't seem bad...and he reminds her of somebody too.]

[It is a strange offer. Not many invited the Nightmare King places. His reputation, although faded over the eons, often proceeded him and he was also very willing to back it up.

But...]

Little while...not forever...not your heart. The Heart...

[Seems he cannot stay forever.]

M..my heart? [Nope sorry, she doesn't feel that way about him..]

No, not forever. But you can always come back whenever you like! If you're ever feeling lonely...

[And she's not awake. There's plenty of other dreams he could see!]

The Heart.

[He puts a little more meaning into it this time. Perhaps he's speaking of something different.

The flames spark in a way that may indicate amusement.]

Perhaps...kind. He said so.

[It shouldn't be to hard to guess who he's talking about.]

[Possibly.] Do you know Grimm? He's my friend too!

Yes...home...heart.

[Until his time comes. Nightfall...the end.]

Is...is he what your vessel is?

[She's learning!]

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