[??? Day 465]

[quitplayinggames]

[you wake up.

the first sensation you feel is your key, warm and alive against your chest. you know immediately that this place is responsive to this power, the power of your will applied to magic. if you've started to experiment with what your special ability is, or if you want to, that realization might be easier to find here as well - though it's not strictly necessary. all you need for sure is a question: what are your desires. . .?

. . . you're in a blank white room. the walls and ceiling are featureless. the floor is covered in a million feathers and scraps of cloth, which drift up in muffling gales around you if you so much as move.

up in one corner high off the ground, you glimpse a splash of bright electric blue through the drifting airy debris. the only other thing of note in the room is the door on one wall: it's white and featureless as a piece of paper, and you get the sense that it will vanish into the wall again if closed. undifferentiated noise pours through the place where it's cracked open, unbearably loud. even with the feathers in the air shutting out the noise a little, it's hard to hear yourself think.

there's something hard and clanging underfoot too, hidden by the feathers. you trip over it immediately because of course you do; ow! what is that?]

((This is a short, individual, play-at-your-own pace plot explore, which will run until 11:59 PM EST on Tuesday, June 2. Anyone jumping in before then is welcome! This is not directly connected with heartgames, so people are free to jump in regardless of whether they've played or run another heart this round.))

Comments

[quitplayinggames]

Dream.

If you care about what others desire, what does it take to resist your own?

[grade3enabler]

[...pulling the handset away from his ear for a moment, thinking about how to answer that.]

[when he's ready to answer, he brings the handset back up.]

I think...I think I can see some pretty extreme solutions come up as ways to deal with the 'problem'...and with the supposed 'problem' being that Dream has desires at all, instead of the actual problem being that he's simply having trouble figuring out which desires of his he can embrace and which might need to be set aside for the sake of someone else.

Is that on the right track...?

[quitplayinggames]

I have Dream's desires. Or I would, if you were really talking to me.

[grade3enabler]

...So in the 'real' version of this, Dream cut the line between this place and his desires.

[quitplayinggames]

[you feel a powerful emotion, hard to identify. . . mixed hope and dread. . .? it hits you so hard that you physically double over.]

[grade3enabler]

[oh. that was...sudden. doubling over...!]

[quitplayinggames]

[ah. . . the noise is dimming around you, as if it was drowned out by that shock of emotion; perhaps you're close t done for today. You hear Dream's voice, a little uncertain, as the noise finishes fading out.]

"Is it safe to pick up?"

[there's time for one more answer, maybe, though you're too out of breath to use words. . . your key is still warm on your chest.]

[grade3enabler]

[...grabbing his key for a moment, and thinking hard on his answer...then focuses on a feeling of uncertainty because he can't honestly say that it's safe when he doesn't know but...also the feeling of trembling until a hand grabs your own, and brings you back down to reality.]

[Whether or not it's safe, Tetsu can at least offer a hand of support. To at least make things a little less scary.]

[quitplayinggames]

[you don't receive a response, but there's a sense at least that someone got your message.

. . . you wake up. don't forget how your key worked here; you can keep using that.

don't forget any of this.]