2017-05-14: Descending into Dreams
- Log: Descending into Dreams
- Cast: Agatha Pyrelight, Virginia Maxwell
- Where: UNKNOWN
- Date: 5/14/2017
- Summary: Virginia finds herself in a strange place, with the Pyre Witch as her guide. Occurs prior to Fertile Soil.
<Pose Tracker> Agatha Pyrelight has posed.
It's the heat that wakes you.
That feeling of discomfort that rouses you from a sound sleep in the dead of night. Cloying, oppressive, crushing. It keeps you from thinking clearly, saps your strength, and drives you from your covers in search of relief. And that feeling of heat wakes Virginia.
That disconcerting feeling, when you wake up and can't remember falling asleep. Like a living dream. The halls of the Schrodinger house feel otherworldly, less than real. Perhaps not even there at all. But the door at the end of the hall is there, open just a crack.
A breath of cold, cool air dances from that crack, beckoning ever onwards.
But outside of the house it is still stifling. The muggy, oppressive feeling that clouds the mind, leaving only that teasing, dancing wind as the only goal. Reaching that cool breath of air would provide relief, but that breeze remains only a tease. Only enough to tempt one to continue following it, out into the darkness.
The wind dances among the trees - was there every a forest near to where Virginia had gone to speak with Maya? But there are trees here - vast, towering trunks with twisted branches that claw at the heavens. The breeze beckons Virginia ever deeper, always teasing its promise of relief from the heat, but keeping it just out of reach.
The shadows slide and dance among the base of the trees. They watch, yellow eyes staring from a myriad of different directions. One might see the moon if they looked up, if not for those shadows, and the clawing, grasping branches above.
And then a voice whispers among the trees, far away, close, it's almost impossible to tell. It echoes, despite its lack of volume, wrapping itself quietly among the otherworldly foliage.
"Are you lost, Virginia?"
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Unbeknownst to Virginia, whose body had been spirited away, her mind and soul were still mired in familiar trappings. She stirs and wakes, as if the encounter with the Trial Knight had been no more than a fleeting nightmare. She stirs and wakes, her body slicked with sweat, her clothes rumpled around her in a choking and unpleasant manner. She rubs at her forehead, shivering. The house had never felt like this before. It was unwelcome. She had to go somewhere else.
...I have to stay away...
She hurries through the halls, her feet bare, prickled and pierced by the ills of the world that lay bare before her. Her breath is short and harrowed.
...have to... get away...
Where does she go? She steps out into the woods, where they once spoke. With the Vile Fiends in tow as well, Agatha can glimpse into her memories. So she is close to them. They chatter amidst themselves, and Virginia looks as if she stood by her lonesome, gazing longingly into them, and yet unable to join their fold. The doubt that's seeded within her soul has blossomed.
...don't want to... look away...
She glances around and fumbles, holding her hands close to her heart.
"I'm lost..."
...I don't want to look away...!
She lowers her head.
"I'm lost, yes..." she admits, looking towards the voice whispering around the trees.
<Pose Tracker> Agatha Pyrelight has posed.
"Well..." And a hand places itself on her back. It's warm - unnaturally so, no person should feel as if a fire was wrapped within their skin - but it helps to provide a point of focus. Something that isn't muddled and diffuse, like trying to stare at the world through a thick fog.
"...you've come to the right place then. All lost children will eventually find their way here." The voice is sultry, and yet understanding. Something that might be terrifying were it not supportive. "Wandering in the woods, a lost child eventually comes across an old cottage. And within that cottage, what does she find?"
A slender hand passes it front of Virgnia's face, and when her view is no longer blocked, she can see the aforementioned dwelling. Warm light spills from inside, and there is the sound of laughter, comradery, and welcome from inside.
But the door is locked, bound with heavy chain. It is possible to stand at the window and look inside, but no one within will notice. That hand settles on Virginia's shoulder, understanding and comforting. "Is this what you desire, Virginia? Someplace comfortable and safe?" A safe and welcoming haven - but there are corners. Shadowed places where someone who is not part of the fold can be left forgotten, at the edge of the group, but never really welcomed within.
"Are you lost, Virginia?" Agatha asks again, whispering. "Or are you simply afraid that there is no place for you at your destination?"
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia's spine nearly jolts upright at that touch, and she throws her head back.
But she doesn't scream.
Her pupils narrow, her eyes widening as if she's starting to see.
She can hear it... laughter, friendship, comfort. But above all, there is... belonging.
"... I try ..." she whispers, her voice trembling, sounding as if she's so very lost. Indeed, her soul is a vagrant one, wandering between the signposts of life. "I try so hard... but I am unlike them... no matter how hard I try to disguise it..."
Her head droops gently. "And even if I've reached where I want to go... even if I spread my wings... what if there is no berth for me to perch upon?"
<Pose Tracker> Agatha Pyrelight has posed.
The lights begin to dim, as if in response to Virginia's own doubts and anxieties. That the place that she wants to belong grows more and more out of reach with every passing second. And as it fades, the Pyre Witch tsks quietly, in sympathy for the pain and helplessness that the girl is feeling. "We can deal with so many things, but loneliness will destroy even the strongest soul. When our bonds fray and we can no longer trust that others will be there for us when we fall..."
Virginia can feel it behind her, even without looking at it. A vast, yawning chasm, opening at her heels and inviting her to give up and fall backwards. Embracing oblivion, instead of succumbing to unending solitude.
"What do you want, Virginia? Do you simply want to hold your hands out for whatever scraps of companionship others deem worth scattering before you?" Agatha steps around in front of the young woman, yellow irises glowing against the blackness of the shadows around them. "Or do you want *more*?"
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Virginia's throat is dry as she watches the light fade, ebbing away from her field of vision.
She stands before the precipice of utter destruction. Behind her, she could fall, and fall, and bear wings as large as the sky itself... and she'll never find any place. No place to call home, no one to call a friend, no one to call a confidant.
"I want... more... I want to see... it all..." Virginia stumbles forward, her hands held forth before her, grasping so desperately for that kinship she feels so alienated from. "I want to belong... I want to be their equal... not just a burden..."
<Pose Tracker> Agatha Pyrelight has posed.
That kind, understanding voice becomes a bit harder as Virginia expresses her own desires, her fear at being left apart. Agatha provides a prompt - a guide to help the girl along the path. "Is that all you want? If you are content to merely catch up, sooner or later you will be left behind."
That feeling of belonging, that warm light from the cottage, continues to fade away, but the witch wraps her fingers around Virgina's... and then they are moving forward, the trees whipping past them. But that warm light in the distance continues to move with them, and they grow no closer.
"Do you want to be just another face in the crowd... or do you want to stand out from the crowd?"
Momentary images appear from the darkness.
Virginia standing in front of a crowd - a strong hero protecting them from some shapeless monster.
Virginia standing among her friends - all of them nodding as she provides the outline of a clever plan...
Virginia standing upon a raised platform - and others raising a glass to her cleverness and daring.
"You want them all to acknowledge you. To shine brighter than all of the others, so not an soul would dare ignore you."
The movement stops, and instead there is a large chest on the ground, chains wrapped around it. It twitches and shivers slightly, a soft sound coming from within.
"This is your potential, Virginia. What you could be if you didn't hold yourself back. If you embraced the power within you."
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
It is wondrous, splendrous, all of it.
Virginia's beauty, wit and bravery is legendary amidst them; the perfect Virginia. The powerful Virginia that lets no monster bully the weak. The Virginia that is cheered amidst all her friends. The Virginia that is heralded by those near and far.
She hesitates for a moment. "Do I...?" she voices a doubt, as some spiritual anchor, somewhere, snags her back.
It doesn't last long. Much like the inexorable movement of time, that anchor is ripped apart, and flung as that vision starts to solidify. The desire begins to ensorcel into a kind of ebbing and flowing power, concentrating and thickening before her hands.
"My potential..."
She closes her eyes. That desire grows ever stronger, and that fear begins to melt away from her shoulders, her mind, her soul.
"To gaze... into the dream..."
It shimmers brightly, for a moment crystalline in clarity. There's a faint, mocking laughter, so far away -- was it even hers? It's unclear. But Agatha can feel it, deep within her soul. There is a dormant power, seeking to be teased out, to be eked into being, into existence.
A power tightly wound with that of dreams, of illusion. And who but the greatest Fool of them all, to shroud herself in illusion and dreams, to walk the path undreamt?
"I desire it."
<Pose Tracker> Agatha Pyrelight has posed.
"Then do not let them ignore you. Embrace that which lies within you. Make all of it a part of you." The witch takes Virgina's hand, and sets it upon the top of that locked chest. "People tell us to be afraid of that which can change us - but to not change is to simply lay back and die. Do not fight that change. Embrace it, and become what you are meant to be."
For someone else, opening this chest would be impossible. But it calls to Virginia - and she can draw up that darkness that had touched her in the Otherworldly Hollow and shape a key that will allow her to unlock her true strength.
"I have shown you the path forward, but you have to walk down it," Agatha states, her voice understanding and sympathy. "Let go of your fear. Let go of your weakness. Others will tell you to reject that which makes you strong, but they do not understand. They want you to be weak, because strength threatens them.
"Once you embrace the truth you have touched, the pain and uncertainty will vanish like smoke in the wind."
<Pose Tracker> Virginia Maxwell has posed.
Do not fear change.
Embrace change.
Become what you were meant to be.
The words resonate as she leans before the chest, kneeling down on both of her knees, holding onto its surface as she would a reverent idol. She continues to hear the voice of the Witch. "This is my path..." she whispers in turn. "Embrace the truth..."
She closes her eyes, and holds her hand out. That darkness begins to seep out of her, all of it, coalescing in a simple spiral pattern until it forms an ornate key. It is all symbolic, but she can very much see the shape of a violet butterfly on the head of the key. A symbol.
She places the key to the chest's lock... and it emerges -- all of it, the chest not so much opening as melting away as a storm of energies engulfs Virginia, bathing her in the darkness of her truth.
And when those errant flames flicker away, who stands in her place but one who has seen fit but to dream the forbidden?
She is well-dressed, much like how Virginia is, but her dress is pitch-black, with an off-white colouration and ribbons and frills adorning them. A bold capelet drapes her shoulders, with a familiar ribbon tied at her neck, but with that same butterfly-shaped jewel in place of her usual brooch.
Her hair has turned ashen white, though it is adorned with a black version of the same headband.
Her eyes gleam with the proper tinge of Malevolence.
A Hellion.
The reborn Virginia reaches her hand out... and a single translucent butterfly, violet in colour, shimmering with the power of dreams, lands upon her fingertips.
"... I do not need to be afraid anymore."