The Willow's Purpose [Day 2, Early Night]
Posted: Sun Oct 29, 2023 6:17 am
Sora finally, finally started to drift off.
He knew the nightmares would be waiting for him, but... He was waiting for them.
"Reiko! Reiko!" Kinyoubi, her voiced panicked in a way Sora had only heard once, when Shirayuki had slipped on a mossy rock and fallen into a river. She'd been less... coherent with her words at that time, of course, and had plunged into the stream herself. She held Reiko in her arms, their youngest daughter's hair clotted with blood. Kinyoubi was staring around in a blind panic.
Which was how he knew he was being fucked with. His wife didn't panic, not when their children were in danger.
"Sora, where the hell ARE you?!"
He knew the nightmare wanted him not to be there. To force him to watch the, suffer in his absence.
But he also knew Yume-Jigoku could FUCK itself.
So he stepped out of the grove of willows that hadn't been there a moment before, stepped out of the trees and into the room the nightmare had plucked from his memory. It was actually the small room Soryu had used, not the larger one Reiko and Kozan slept in that had once belonged to Phi and Shirayuki.
"I'm here."
He was wearing his armor, with the names she'd written on it, and the names glimmered like stars, casting light about the chamber.
He could feel the nightmare trying to twist things. To make Reiko appear dead, to turn Kinyoubi into a monster, to set the place on fire.
I deny you.
The armor became a robe, but the names- the names she had written for him- stayed as Kinyoubi, her arms empty of any injured child, stood up to embrace him. He held her close, willing himself to dream the smell of her hair.
And you know what?
The children were there too.
Phi, teaching some farmer's children their characters outside. He could hear the amusement and pride in her voice as her pupils seemed to get it.
Shirayuki holding aloft a dismayed fox wrapped in a kimono in triumph running down the hall. And of course, the kimono was one of his.
Soryu and the dog Kyosei had given him playing out in the courtyard.
Reiko, her five-year-old's fingers clumsily braiding a single bell into her hair to "look more like Phi."
Kozan, her twin, trying to "tattoo" himself with one of Shirayuki's calligraphy brushes.
So do they.
They'd probably never all live in the same place again, but for one night, at least, Jiyo Sora's family were all with him, and he slept the sleep of the just.
[Sora is Not Having This Shit
Day 2 Nightmare event, Willpower roll 1- TN 20, Jiyo Void-Bomb for +2k2 | 6k6 ⇒ 80 (TN: 20)]
He knew the nightmares would be waiting for him, but... He was waiting for them.
"Reiko! Reiko!" Kinyoubi, her voiced panicked in a way Sora had only heard once, when Shirayuki had slipped on a mossy rock and fallen into a river. She'd been less... coherent with her words at that time, of course, and had plunged into the stream herself. She held Reiko in her arms, their youngest daughter's hair clotted with blood. Kinyoubi was staring around in a blind panic.
Which was how he knew he was being fucked with. His wife didn't panic, not when their children were in danger.
"Sora, where the hell ARE you?!"
He knew the nightmare wanted him not to be there. To force him to watch the, suffer in his absence.
But he also knew Yume-Jigoku could FUCK itself.
So he stepped out of the grove of willows that hadn't been there a moment before, stepped out of the trees and into the room the nightmare had plucked from his memory. It was actually the small room Soryu had used, not the larger one Reiko and Kozan slept in that had once belonged to Phi and Shirayuki.
"I'm here."
He was wearing his armor, with the names she'd written on it, and the names glimmered like stars, casting light about the chamber.
He could feel the nightmare trying to twist things. To make Reiko appear dead, to turn Kinyoubi into a monster, to set the place on fire.
I deny you.
The armor became a robe, but the names- the names she had written for him- stayed as Kinyoubi, her arms empty of any injured child, stood up to embrace him. He held her close, willing himself to dream the smell of her hair.
And you know what?
The children were there too.
Phi, teaching some farmer's children their characters outside. He could hear the amusement and pride in her voice as her pupils seemed to get it.
Shirayuki holding aloft a dismayed fox wrapped in a kimono in triumph running down the hall. And of course, the kimono was one of his.
Soryu and the dog Kyosei had given him playing out in the courtyard.
Reiko, her five-year-old's fingers clumsily braiding a single bell into her hair to "look more like Phi."
Kozan, her twin, trying to "tattoo" himself with one of Shirayuki's calligraphy brushes.
So do they.
They'd probably never all live in the same place again, but for one night, at least, Jiyo Sora's family were all with him, and he slept the sleep of the just.
[Sora is Not Having This Shit
Day 2 Nightmare event, Willpower roll 1- TN 20, Jiyo Void-Bomb for +2k2 | 6k6 ⇒ 80 (TN: 20)]