★ wanna crack the code, her spell is so mysterious

[liedol]

⭐ Who: Ai and you!
⭐ When: End of July through August
⭐ Where: Various prompts around Yumemigaoka and the Dream Sphere
⭐ What: August Ai catchall! With things in the Dream Sphere officially getting Weird, Ai's doing her best to investigate like a good Experienced Dreamer while keeping up with her duties as a Mentor and as an idol. I'm also down for doing closed/private prompts so hit me up on Discord if you'd like to plan something!

Comments

[meteorman]

[Of course the weird graves are necessary, they're symbolic. That's how dreams work. It can't all be sparkly starlight and crystal palm trees; if it was none of them would be here to begin with.]

No, of course not.

[He paused, standing up a little straighter and running a hand thoughtfully over his jaw.]

... Well, actually. Maybe? How long is 'this whole time', exactly?

[liedol]

Ai folds her arms across her chest and does her level best to beam disappointment at him. She has no idea how effective this particular strategy will be on Ford, but she can at least try for a little guilt trip. As a treat.

A few weeks. Minimum. And that's just on the other side – who knows how long it is in here.

[ Staaaaaaaaaaare. She's gotten pretty good at radiating Motherly Disapproval, even if it isn't exactly going to work on a guy who's old enough to be her dad. ]

You know it's dangerous to spend this much time in here, especially all by yourself.

[meteorman]

[Unfortunately he is completely unable to feel shame, at least about things he ought to be ashamed of. It's not even an age thing, it's that he's been allowed to develop bad habits and now he's too old to unlearn them. He's like a poorly-socialized cat.]

No it isn't. How many times in forty years have I disappeared or died? None. And you would know that because you're talking to me currently and I'm clearly fine.

[Really what he means is it's not dangerous for him. Other people, sure, but they haven't been doing this for as long and aren't as monumentally stupid.]

[liedol]

[ YOU'D THINK RAISING TWO TROUBLEMAKING TWINS WOULD HAVE GIVEN HER THE PATIENCE FOR THIS... AND YET... ]

And what happens if you do die or disappear and that's the one time we decide not to check up on you? It's better to be safe than sorry, especially with all the strange things going on lately. ... and besides, you need to go home and feed your cat!

[ Ai sure as hell isn't risking her life to do that. She's seen that beast before and she's only mostly certain that it even IS a cat. ]

1/2

[meteorman]

[oh fuck that's right he's got a cat]

[meteorman]

[In his defense it's easy to forget because Shifty is less a beloved pet and more a very small, angry roommate who won't pay rent. He can get outside and he's more than capable of doing his part to decimate the local small animal population, so he's probably fine, but she still has a point.

Icarus pushes his glasses up a little to rub at the bridge of his nose.]

Alright, alright. Though I'm certain he's perfectly fine. He's determined to outlive me.

[There's no other reason for a cat that old to continue existing except pure spite, right?

In that way they really are the perfect pair.]

[liedol]

[ SIGH. ] If you keep leaving him alone like this then one of these days, he's going to make certain of it.

[ Again: she's seen that cat. If any beast could fight a fully grown man at least three times its size and win, she'd bet on the cat every single time. ]

And besides that – aren't you curious about everything you've missed while you were in here?

[meteorman]

No.

[How much could happen in a couple of weeks? Unless one of the many people he's been arguing back and forth with in the footnotes of his research papers has published something new. Then he'll have to start drafting a response. It's just he has a feeling that's not what she means.]

But I imagine you're going to tell me about it?

[liedol]

[ remember ai... you're an idol... it's not like an idol to give a man in his seventies a noogie no matter how badly you want to do it and how badly he might deserve it... ]

Dreamer Crimson is back, for one. So I've heard.

[ Might as well lead with the most exciting part of the headline first, if only to take a shot at getting him to pay any kind of attention. ]

[meteorman]

[Okay. Wait. That actually does get his attention. He knew Crimson had been sighted, that was part of the reason he'd been fucking around in the Dream Sphere for the past couple weeks. 'Back' implies...]

As in 'out'?

[For the first time he is looking directly at her and giving her his undivided attention. He was never particularly close with Crimson on account of he's never been particularly close with anyone, but for a time they were contemporaries. He's at least familiar with some of her research. People being lost isn't new, but people coming back after such extended disappearances... it's never been proven impossible but it's also never happened. It's not something you can test, it would be unethical to purposefully lose people in the Dream Sphere and see if they could get back out again. He knows, he suggested it and the IRB of the DU research branch shot it down immediately.

He'd been working under the assumption that after a set amount of time a person passed a kind of point of no return. Apparently that set amount of time is a lot longer than he'd guessed? On a more unsettling and personal note, this has implications regarding Bill Cipher than he doesn't much like to think about. The point is he is very actively invested in this particular thing, past the point of simple detached scientific curiosity.]

Awake?

[liedol]

[ She shakes her head. ]

Not as far as I know. ... but by the sounds of things, that's by choice.

[ Crimson being sighted would be one thing – getting proof positive that she hadn't simply ceased to be in the comings and goings of the Dream Sphere would have been enough of a revelation for everyone. Even if they hadn't been able to rescue her then, it would've given them a goal to work towards and some hope that maybe some of the other people trapped there could eventually be found and brought back.

But if it's like this, then... ]

A group went out to find her and came across this strange dream she'd been spotted in before. They tried to get closer but she split the whole thing apart and told them never to come back. From the sounds of things... she was pretty hostile.

[ Her irritated expression has made way for something flatter, more uncomfortable. She hadn't known Eliza all that well but she'd known her well enough to tell how close she and the other girls in RAY had been. Close enough that it'd made Ai a little envious.

Even if she'd had no family or anything else to come back to... was she really fine with leaving RAY behind? ]

Whatever's going on with Crimson... things are pretty different than we'd all guessed.