The Day of Thunder

[Ryoshun Nao]

The garden was familiar. Nao had visited it before, many times. She couldn't remember those times clearly, but she was certain she'd been here. It was all too familiar. Each motion felt natural, as she began smoothing an area for a new design. She would need to do this several times, there was so much to add.

Nao paused before she began to mark the anything new. Realization crossed her face as she looked around. The garden was vast, with countless designs already in place. Yet, they all felt unfinished. That made sense for some. There was more to add. But, many should have been finalized. They should be preserved.

But dreams, even reoccurring dreams, weren't permanent. If they faded away or changed. Now she wondered. Could she finally change that? Could these stories finally be saved?

Nao starts to see something odd in the designs. She could see nearly invisible, sparkling lines in the empty areas of each design. Showing what they once were, and what they needed to be complete. She watched herself walk away from her own body and step onto the air just above the sand, not disrupting it. She saw herself bring down her rake and carefully complete the stories, the designs, exactly as they once were, without disrupting others.

As moved around, as far as they eye could see, as thought she could see what had once been. she began to see with each design, the context they had been born in. Who did the drawing. It gave her new insight to complete it as those designing it meant it. New context to preserve anything new.

It felt close, as if it were her natural way of being. As if it was something she could do. but not yet.

She heard her father's deep voice around her, as though his hands rested on her shoulders. "As I asked for my memory to preserve, you preserve the memories of others."

"The dead should be remembered." She said to herself. "All of them."

She moved to a nearby tale and tried to help it take its proper shape. The lines did not sift. She tried again, but nothing moved. It wouldn't be that simple. But, she was close.


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The Ideal Future: Legacy, Lucid Dreaming, Willpower | 3k3 ⇒ 16 (TN: 20)

The Ideal Future: Legacy, Lucid Dreaming, Willpower, 2nd attempt | 3k3 ⇒ 5 (TN: 20)

She could see something hanging in the air over the sand garden. A new rake.

With it, she could see the tales the way her other self did. With it, she could give them their proper shape.

She just had to reach out and take it.

Had she willed the means she needed into existence? It wasn't what she had attempted, but dreams often defied expectations. It would be easy to finish the stories this way. She knew it would.

Was it supposed to be easy?

She had tried so hard to remember each tale and write it down. This knew the stories and could write them for her. That felt wrong, artificial. This was a task she had set for herself. She should do it herself.

She reached out to shift the sand one more time, putting more of herself into it. Again, nothing happened.

Noa picked up the normal rake and went back to work.

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The Ideal Future: Legacy, Lucid Dreaming, Willpower, 1 Last Time, VP for +1k1 | 4k4 ⇒ 18 (TN: 20)

Eventually, she manages to do it herself.

Unlike her other self, she has to walk on the ground, figure out what the designs might have been from others like it, step around other designs carefully so as not to ruin them.

But she does it.

With a sense of accomplishment at doing it with her own hands... and an odd sense of approval, like she had been seen, somehow... the dream ends.