deercountry | Promises Promises/Insomnia

Entry tags:

Promises Promises/Insomnia

Who: Luz and you!

What: Accepting loss and dealing with NEW problems (yay)?

When: The first week of September

Where: Check prompts for locations!

A- Cellar Door

Luz would have said she was being needless emo. After all, there was rainfall here and she was depressed, so she figured being here would match her mood. How more dramatic did you have to be? But Luz wasn't in laughing mood, and it was everything she felt like right now.

Margot wasn't coming. She knew that now, she accepted it, and accepting that meant everything else that came with it. Margot was back in her world, robbed of her ability to think and reason as a person, back to her basic instincts as a wolf. No more playing and late night talks. No more huddles with her adopted sister. No more gardening. She wouldn't even remember Luz when she was there. It would be like she was never with Luz at all.

But Luz would remember. She'd remember and know that Margot wasn't just some person who wandered and left the dream. She was the sister she never had, the girl who'd share a room with her and helped her paint it and watched Eda cook as they eagerly awaited being fed and what the next day would bring.

She'd remember, and now, in the rain, she could at least cry with her hood up, and she'd be as much a passerby as anyone. Just some shadow person passing, weeping about something or other.

Or so she thought anyway.
thinky-Copy

B- Cassandra (The Disaster House)

Luz has had some time to think, and it was finally time for her to head to the place that would be her home. It's be nice, honestly, to have a place where there were more people her age, she reasoned. Obviously living with Eda and Margot had been ideal, and after that it had been the Doctors and Vira Lorr. Now she was at a new place, and a new place required a completely new way of living and, most obvious of all, would be redecorating her new place, which was the attic upstairs.

If you were visiting or a resident yourself, you'd see Luz busy at work already trying to make this place her own. There were already several stuffed animals, although Trenchwood seemed to have it's own ideas of what was cute, so the various creatures might be a bit off putting. There were several easels in the corner, one notably a wolf friend she was missing as well as one with various witches: Azura, Miss Hardbroom and of course her beloved Eda. The curtains were pulled back and there was air rushing in, so Luz was having a bit of trouble keeping all the papers from flying away.

"Darn it! This is the fifth time!"

C- Disaster House- I don't need sleep, I need clean!
needs-sleep

Was Luz getting a little unhinged because of her recent depression? Was she just overcompensating somehow? It was hard to tell. What one could SEE, however, was that it was the dead of night and Luz was not at all sleeping, but was instead intent on cleaning the disaster house, half mumbling to herself as she did so.

"I could tackle the living quarters, got to arrange the skulls. I don't want to get to the garden because I'll be crying again, or the greenhouse because I could probably die, or get poisoned. No good. Not going into Fern's room yet, I'll definitely die. The kitchen, YEAH! That sounds perfect!"

She had to go to the bathroom first.

"ARGH! WHY IS THERE A HOLE HERE?! VARIAN! THEY'RE JUST BATHROOMS!"

hunched-over

D - Drifting into Dreamspace

So after finally "convinced" to try and get some sleep, Luz finally had settled down, her omen (that was new) giving her a reproachful stare.

"I promise, I'll try!" Luz insisted, though Tempest did not look convinced. Luz blew a raspberry at the wolf and added, "thanks, you're the best" and closed her eyes, attempting to drift off. She'd been trying to do this the past few days, and doubted anything was going to happen, but figured if she couldn't sleep, she'd maybe go to the tower and get some reading done.

However, she DID drift off, just not in the way she though. For a moment, she felt a wave of color pass over her, and she figured that she was finally nodding off, but instead of that she felt light. She exhaled and felt herself leave, and for a moment, she was assuming she was unconscious.

But it was a strange feeling. She opened her eyes, and realized she was very much not awake, not quite. She was instead floating, drifting quietly down the attic steps and then out the door. She should have been freaking out, but her body felt so tired, and whatever was happening now felt NOTHING like that.

A passing though occurred to her. Maybe I should try these lamp location thingies out.

But where would she wind up?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yes."

Lysithea sips her tea after that quietly for a few moments. In truth... she had no idea what the outcomes of many of their decisions had been. Cynthia? Released. The Dog Keeper? She couldn't imagine they could have done anything but save him. Julia...

Had there ever been anything to save?

And with the creation of this path, the passage into this world... What was their responsibility here?

"...I think the rain's letting up." Lysithea recognizes that there are unanswered questions, but she doesn't know that discussing it further would be informative. "Do you want more tea and cookies or shall we go?"

"Yes" pretty much covered all of that. She knew Julia and Cynthia's fate. Doug's fate, in her eyes, was to never be punished. But the others? She couldn't imagine their end being too freeing as the others.

But even she was wondering that question about their role now.

"Oh yeah, you're right!" She'd forgotten about that completely! "We can still stay and talk, actually! I missed you!"

"Oh -- "

Lysithea takes on a faintly surprised expression at that response before it smooths out into a smile.

"Me, too."

Their relationship would be a little different now - Luz was still a young teenager and Lysithea was essentially an adult, but... the memories of their time here were still dear to her.

"So... tell me about you, then, Luz. What have you seen in this first week here?"

Luz was beaming of course. She was actually pretty impressed with how much older Lysithea had gotten, and was only a little sad that her friend got to age when she was relatively the same age that they were in Deerington. Most of her feeling was that she was glad to see Lysithea less fatalistic and a little more sure of herself and her magical abilities now.

"Oh. Well, if we forget the evil crabs and the pirates? I've mostly just been adjusting to being in Cassandra once Varian got wind that his place stayed the same. I've been looking at the blood tree, sort of wrapping my head around the idea that I have innate magic now. The town I'm in is nice enough, if a little bleak, and you can definitely feel the magic in the air if you know what that's like. Lots of pretty things here too. What about on your end?"

"...Evil what?"

Clearly, she had missed out on some adventures prior to September.

"And I actually don't know what you mean by blood tree. I haven't had ample opportunity to explore every section of this city so far. It's not... a tree made from blood?" That would be weird. "I just showed up about 48 hours ago, actually... so there's not much to report yet."

"Crabs," Luz repeated. "Ok, so maybe I don't know their exact alignment, but snipping me so I got all woozy and attempting to eat me while I was coming back into my human body seems pretty messed up to me. So I'm still calling them evil crabs."

Good for her, although that DID mean she missed the pirates, which was sad.

"It's in Cassandra. Believe me when I say, you can't miss it. Oh, that much later? Does that mean you don't remember being a squid?"

"...I transitioned from squid form 48 hours ago."

Lysithea responds primly. She has no intention of entertaining the whole squid idea for any longer than absolutely necessary. It's obviously a collective delusion and bears no mentioning.

"I... must have missed the crabs. Thankfully. I just awoke on the beach and some of my possessions were nearby."

"Oh good! I know someone who kinda skipped it somehow, so I'm curious if that happened to more than just that person."

Oh, Luz definitely didn't think that. As far as she was concerned, that had definitely happened for a reason and was bound to come back again.

"You only met them if you washed into the caves. So yeah, you're definitely lucky. I didn't get my stuff until hours later, after I stole clothes and then had to escape the pirates with Luca!"

No squids!!! It is never happening again!!

(it will happen repeatedly, frequently, now and forever more)

"I definitely did not skip it."

No! Squids!

"Tell me about Luca, though. He's new here? To this whole otherworld business in general? Is he around your age?"

"That was still pretty weird, the more I think about it. That must be part of the whole being reborn thing, and I'm pretty sure it'll come up again, one way or another."

Squids. Wild.

"If you meet him, he'll explain his whole, well, thing. What I can tell you is yes, he's definitely new here, never been before, and he's adjusting to our whole living situation. He's my age too, and was just going to school before he was brought here. Pretty sure that Varian is going to be a big help for filling in the knowledge he's not getting. Also, I agreed to help him redecorate his room. He's a very sweet kid though, I think you'll like him!"

"Well, he's lucky to have somebody so welcoming to take care of him."

Lysithea could never maintain the kind of cheerful energy that is Luz's signature. Even now, after sobbing in the rain, she's already begun to put on that energetic display that is so nostalgically familiar.

"Perhaps I'll come visit sometime. We can have a more homey tea party - not that there's anything wrong with this, but..."

It's always nicer to do it in private.

"And -- " She takes a half second to properly remember the boys' names. "Fern and Varian are well?"

"We're lucky to have him! I think he's going to have a great time living with us, provided that this place isn't super rough with what happens next month. Time will tell on that, but here's hoping things so smoothly!"

Never going to happen. And luckily for Luz, she can redirect her energy flow elsewhere. She's not one for forgetting how good she has things, even now.

"By the time you come, I should hopefully have my room set up! Still have to work on a few things, but I think you'll like it yourself!"

She was absolutely sure that Lysithea would approve!

"As well as they can. Fern is making the adjustment to having blood for the first time since he's only been made of grass, and Varian is still grouchy because he's all about science over magic and now has magic in his veins. Other than that, the house and the people in it have so far been the highlight of being here!"

"Magic and science are essentially the same thing, anyway," says Lysithea, casually ignorant of how upsetting Varian would find this statement. "They're both systems to manipulate the natural world to achieve the results you desire. It's not like our studies of incantations and glyphwork are any less based in hypotheses and experimentation."

Although she really couldn't speak to whatever magic was in their blood now.

"Hopefully I'll have a room, too. How do we do this again? Just wander around looking for empty houses like in Deerington?"

"I have definitely said that to him. I think he selectively ignores it because he doesn't want to believe it's true. It didn't help that Eda believed the opposite was true and definitely tried to tease Varian about it, or that one of Varian's enemies here is a proficient magical user."

Which reminded her that she really needed to go talk to Luna again to see how she and Peter were doing.

"I think so? I wasn't a part of that process either times. The people I lived with just had them. You MIGHT find that your old place made it here though."

"It takes time to overcome one's biases."

Lysithea responds sagely, in a slightly detached manner, as if she didn't entertain an enormous amount of them herself.

"And Eda, I assume, just took every opportunity she could to antagonize people for sport."

That was one of the fun parts about Eda.

"...My old place technically did make it here." There is a faint pause. "My old place, the last time I saw it, had fallen into a fissure in an earthquake. ...Time has not improved its condition."

"Don't I know it! I guess everyone's got something to get over!"

Luz would have counted herself as someone who sometimes needed to be exposed to certain things so she could be more understanding!

"She did, particularly with Varian, but strangely I think she was fond of him anyway. I know she was pretty broken up when she saw him die. Just wish it hadn't been the last time I saw her."

Nope, nope, let's not dwell on that! And yes, that part of Eda always was as much fun as it was frustrating.

"Oh. Yeah, that is pretty unfortunate. Definitely let me know if you need me to help you find a new place, ok?"

"I don't think I need help quite yet, but -- if you'd like to come sift through the rubble sometime..."

Lysithea remarks doubtfully. She doesn't think there's much to find, but it was still her room, once upon a time.

"I'll find a place and then salvage what I can. It's very peculiar. They just... transplanted the room behind one of those fake brick walls in Gaze."

Probably just to annoy her.

"I'm sorry, Luz -- did you get to see her when you went home, at least?"

"Of course! It can be like a scavenger hunt, only we have absolutely no idea what we'll find!"

So basically a real scavenger hunt.

"Huh. That sounds so strange I think I'd better see it in person."

Might even give her ideas about her own room!

"For a little time, yeah. Not going to lie, it was a little painful to see another me talking about being with Eda when I couldn't be there right at that time. I really miss her a lot."

She missed ALL of them a lot.

"I hope there was some sense of closure in a final glance."

That's probably the best they can hope for. At least Lysithea had seen out her battle - lived out a few years trying to do her best in this war and come to the realization that all her efforts were fruitless. Staying in Fodlan would be folly.

Luz had... possibilities still.

"I don't know if this is helpful, but... I had a conversation once with somebody here. People are in your lives for the time they need to be. And even if they can't stay forever, at least the way they've changed you will live on."

Luz was quiet for a moment.

"I don't believe it'll be the last time I see Eda. I don't know why I think that, I just do. Somehow I feel like we'll see each other again. In the meantime, this place is my home now. It won't make sense for me to feel guilty about that."

She said that, of course, but nothing could take away some of that ache fully. She still couldn't see her mother after all, and that hurt more than she could really say.

"That sounds like some good advice. I'll try to remember that. Who told you that?"

Lysithea smiles lightly at that declaration.

"I understand. It's... instinct. A feeling too strong to simply dismiss. I had that selfsame conviction when I returned home - that I knew I would be drawn back here someday. Perhaps there's no such thing as psychic predictions, but there's usually a reason for one's strong belief, even if you can't explain it outright."

But at Luz's next question, she shakes her head.

"You know, I can't remember. But it's stayed with me for years."

"I'm glad that you felt that way too. I knew that whatever was happening in your own world, you were going to play an important role there. I also knew that somehow, I'd see you again."

It wouldn't have been the same without her.

"Maybe it'll come to you later? That, or you'll find some kind of advice that will be more meaningful with this new kind of place."

Lysithea gives a small shrug.

"Whoever said it... it's brought me solace in regards to thinking of my friends in Fodlan. I believe they've made me who I am today, and -- even if we never meet again, that's proof of our friendship in and of itself.

"I suppose as far as friendship goes, I should try to get to know the native people here. We have more in common with each other, of course, but... we do share the city now."

Luz nodded, smiling. "I agree with you. I didn't think I'd ever make friends before the Boiling Isles, and then when I arrived here I found even more. I'd say because of them that I was able to be here and not have to think every single thing I thought or blurted out was going to get me made fun of. When you start to think things like that, you tend to not want to let anyone in, and then you really never make friends."

Heck, even Lysithea had changed a lot from how she used to be. She had to imagine that came to pass because of her own friends back home.

"Not just the Sleepers you know, but the ones that just arrived here too. There's a whole new crop of them! Couldn't tell you why they're here now though."

"It is odd, isn't it?"

Lysithea frowns in concern.

"Why are they still bringing newcomers to this place? Us, I can understand. We made this place. It's where we... belong, in a sense. No matter what we think, we've diverged from our original selves. But dragging in people who have nothing to do with it...

"What are the Pthumerians up to?"

Promises Promises/Insomnia

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