Ardent Dreamers [Open]

[Lyra d'Aiglemort]

Brow furrowing, Lyra blinked and kept quiet as the man who had fallen from the sky replied. He was wrong, she thought, but Lyra couldn’t explain why. A conviction without facts was worth less than dirt. And anyway, she was not in the business of contradictions.

Each step forward he took on an additional element of solidity. Sunlight glinting in his hair as he reached the riverbank, blood rushing through capillaries as he flailed about in what was little more than a creek, shadows pooling along his collarbones and beneath his eyelashes as he broke the invisible pane between them and stepped into reality.

“Yes, that was quite dumb,” Lyra agreed placidly, returning his statement without much thought.

Planting her palms on the hill she felt each individual blade of grass tickle her skin. The man put off a chill, the air stirred, and water dripping from his nose, but Lyra didn’t mind. None of those details were important.

“Hello. It is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Shuu. My name is Lyra.” She dipped her head in a cannibalized bow.

“I’m conducting a survey.” The answer spilled from Lyra’s lips, perfectly comprehensible and solemn as if this were a task she had been assigned.

“How many people live in your household? What would you classify your income bracket as? In the past two weeks, how often have you fallen from the sky? Your options are: 0 none of the days, 1 some of the days, 2 more than half the days, or 3 all of the days.”

She didn’t have a pen to keep track of the responses she gathered. Somehow Lyra knew she would forget what he said but she couldn’t be bothered to go look for writing utensils.

[Shuu]

His actions did deserve some admonishing but that was what bothered him. Something was off, more than the world and its denial of his true movement, but something in the way this woman acted? No...projected herself. Nonchalance and indifference gently sifting on the surface. Yet that wasn't what drove his right eye to twitch ever so slightly.

The bow. It was the bow. Lyra's bow bothered him to no end.

It was perfect mimicry of human movement, she had a proper form and she positioned herself appropriately but it felt...practiced? Mechanical? There was no life to the motion, just a passive motion that only appeared a greeting on the surface but felt hollow to the Shinigami. Would he even have noticed such a thing before...before what? It was just a simple gesture, why was he reading into it so fervently? Arching his brow, Shuu opened his mouth a few times as he struggled to say something...

Strings pulled fiercely, this world vibrating with intensity at the purple-haired man's thoughts. Forcing him to drop his shoulders and place his hands on his hips, looking to the sky and letting out a long breath he didn't know he was holding. No, not holding. The breath, a huff of air to signify an expelling of exertion, was pulled from him. Thoughts were suppressed, any notion of analyzing the woman before him was pushed down and smothered under the weight of how he should be.

Moments. Seconds.

“Sorry, still a little out of breath. A survey, hm? Suppose that's harmless enough.” Shuu beamed a smile and the world eased away, the strings becoming slack as he played his part. Holding his chin in thought, he was mumbling to himself as if he was counting. Family...images of people he knew shimmered into the background behind him. These revenants behaved as any passerby would, outside of their conversation and going about their own tasks.

From across the water a man with one arm dressed in a chalk green polo shirt walked along side another man, tall with short cropped hair and thin-rimmed glasses. Hands clasped together they were engaged in conversation as they strolled along. Rushing past the two was two more younger men, one with long gray hair and another with shaggy brown, their shouts at one another incomprehensible but loud all the same. Finally three girls sitting by the water sitting not too far off, talking quietly. The eldest girl was crouched down, pointing at something in the water as the other two little ones peered intently into the water.

More figures started to popular the empty world, faces unfamiliar to Lyra but would ignite recognition in Shuu if he cared to turn around. A few here, several there. Hundreds. Going about their business, oblivious to their sudden emergence into a world not their own and seamlessly blending. Raising a finger as though he had come up with the number, a simple calculation that should not have taken him that long.

“Eight if you include myself!” Details of the people moving around them vanished, replaced with vague concepts of acknowledgment. Like walking through a busy street and only noticing strangers in your peripherals.

“Income bracket...? Oh, modest I suppose. Comfortable. Quiet...” His eyes grew distant, a slight shiver as he peered inward, moving thoughts that lazily slipped passed the strings of this alien world. “Complacent.”

The word was said with such disdain, such weight and sadness that the strings forced him to play the part better. A twitch of the head, a silent and invisible struggle, before smiling again as the world forced him to obey. What she wanted was important, what she had to say must be adhered to, what she dreamed...

What she...dreamed?

“I fall from the sky...pfft, let's see. Carry the one, minus two...” Shuu smirked, coyly counting and not paying much attention to whether his jovial attitude bothered Lyra in the slightest. “At least zero, for sure. Don't you need to write this down? I got a pen somewhere I think...”

Patting his body, he reached into his pocket and began pulling things out. Small, at first such as an eraser or a toothbrush. Hands reaching in and out of his jacket pockets, he started to procure larger and larger items. Omamoris, a rabbit's foot, a necklace of four-leaf clovers that was far to long for anyone to wear comfortably. A boombox, an old pair of sneakers, several small tamagotchis spilling from his pockets as he withdrew a blue scooter, complete with a white racing stripe along the side, and set it on the ground next to him.

“Perhaps not? Do you often hang around parks to conduct surveys? What is it you do exactly...?”

[Lyra d'Aiglemort]

“Eight,” Lyra repeated after him, mouthing the word as if speech might give it real meaning. Her gaze flickered to the passing figures, taking them in and then dismissing them once it became clear they were ignoring her as well.

“That’s a large family.” Such an inane comment, the need to express it clearly not coming from any practical source. Lyra disliked useless words. They always served to trip her up and right now, with the sun shining, and the scent of warm earth, she didn’t want to ruin this.

Though she had to wonder how talented his family members were that eight of them were salvageable. Maybe the children were still works in progress.

Her companion – Shuu – seemed to fall under a dark cloud; Lyra glanced up, and sure enough, the clouds had crept closer just to rain shadows over Shuu. If she held her arm out, she could have felt the separation, light and shadow, an invisible barrier slicing the two worlds in half.

Fear trickled down her spine. Cold setting in. She didn’t want to lose her hands again now that the grass was so close. Lyra froze and hoped the clouds wouldn't continue their march.

Inchoate terror hit her as fresh as chestnuts plucked from the tree but Shuu’s smile cut through the shadows. His teeth gleamed – not as bright as his eyes. She found herself staring at him, the joke only belatedly sinking in.

Lyra laughed – because she knew she was meant to, and yet the smile that formed slowly in the wake of her laughter was soft and true. “That is not proper math,” she instructed haughtily.

That joke too dissolved as Shuu began rifling around in his pockets. Lyra watched, calmly at first, and then with eyes that widened at each non-pen-shaped reveal. Her heart thumped and she reached out, drawn by the fullness in her chest, only to pause with her fingers inches from the pile of objects.

“Ah…” Lyra tilted her head, retracting her hand so that her question would not become a subtle demand. “May I?” She wanted to touch them all. To see if they were real or not. But also, because it was not often that Lyra saw so many treasures, and maybe if she touched them this feeling would last.

Even distracted Lyra was incapable of being rude. She hummed faintly, sluggishly processing these last few inquiries. “No. I’m not supposed to talk to anyone at parks, usually. That would be suspicious.” Her mouth closed, the steady stream of consciousness faltering, as Lyra considered why the last question seemed so hard to answer.

After a momentary pause, she pulled her lips into a smile – pleasant and practiced. “Whatever I need to do. It would be nice to conduct surveys, I think. There is tons of information out there and many people give different responses to the same questions.”

“I would like to ask a lot of people and see what they tell me. Don’t you think that would be fascinating?”

[Shuu]

A chink in the armor, as if it was never there to begin with. Her laughter was light, airy even, which only made Shuu's grin all the wider. While the Shinigami was acting outside of his own awareness, there was an ease of tension with that laughter. Wonderment, curiosity, excitement. Cold, possibly distant, was a good way to describe his first impression of Lyra. As if she didn't really recognize him as someone that was addressing her but more as something that just so happened to exist, to simply fill a void and addressed as such.

Several string fell away, swept up in an unseen river and finally dissolved. Color brightened for him, sound was sharper, his recognition of the brown haired girl before him became more defined. He hadn't noticed before but he felt more harmonized with the world around him. More attuned to Lyra...which revealed more to his eyes as a dark shadowy figure loomed behind her.

Cold sweat broke out along his back, his breath held in as he shifted his eyes down to the woman who was reaching for the pile of knickknacks before her. It shimmered like a mirage yet no mere illusion would weigh down on him like that void of nothingness. Pitch black, of shadow come to life, of a deep abyss that would swallow him whole if he deigned to acknowledge it.

Instinct screamed at him to run. His gut told him to flow backwards, to rewind and adapt. To blend back in and avoid the ire of unknowable entities.

Shadow. Teeth. Tension. Feiler. Elims. Thgil.
Light. Smile. Relief. Noisnet. Hteet. Wodahs.

String...

This time he did not fight against the string that pulled him to play a part. They compensated for a lack of those that had held him before, tugging him back into place. Light dimmed back to normal, the discoloration no more noticeable than it had been before. Their link mellowed back into another passing of strangers, a chance encounter and nothing more but a conversation to be enjoyed.

“Well, that is a safe rule to follow. Not everyone has the best intentions, yet living your life afraid to make friends and have new experiences sounds awfully lonely.” He felt her comment on being suspicious was more meant for herself than for a stranger but his eyes were kind and lacked any judgment or resentment, “As they say, hope for the best and expect the worse. People will surprise you.”

Squatting down, smiling and unaware of what had transpired only moments ago, Shuu waved his hand before the assorted pile of oddities. A clear offer for her to help herself. To be free to do as she pleased in her the world. Lyra's question didn't take much for him to answer quickly, as he nodded enthusiastically. “Very fascinating! For a moment there I was a little put off by the random survey but seeing it from your point of view makes it seem far more interesting.”

His smile wavered as there was a shimmer behind her but he couldn't explain why it disturbed him. Mind frantically clinging to the stability of the world, he absently reached down and grabbed an omamori. Red material with golden flower prints along the outside, a golden string tied on the top and the kanji for “Insight” stamped in the center. Tugging on the corners idly, he looked between the items that he had unloaded before them. He arched an eyebrow at some while others he felt a tinge of remembrance. Familiarity clashed with the pull of the world but the violet-haired man kept his composure, clung to the string, and continued to engage with the interesting company he had found himself in.


“People are interesting. They are a myriad of experiences that form who they are. You can gain all sorts of knowledge, learn new things. Gain insight...” He smiled holding up the charm in his hand before continuing. “Insight into people can provide you with more than what's on the surface. It can be scary. It cane be enlightening. I find it admirable that you would want to learn about others.”

He paused for a moment, the nature of his consciousness struggling with the pull of the world and fighting against the recognition of forces around him. Contemplating his words for a moment, he looked up at her and once dull eyes of a washed out green shone brightly as they peered into hers.

“When you are looking at others, do you ever wonder to look inward? At yourself? To answer the questions you would ask yourself.” Were the words spoken his? Did they belong to the her world? Was there more at play than simply being a puppet? His tone shifted, his voice becoming more formal and spoken with an air of sympathy, less boisterous and more soft spoken. The obnoxious tracksuit flashed out and was replaced with a purple kimono that held elegant silver trimming, his hair no longer held up by a raggedy sweat band but pulled back into an intricate design that looped with golden clasps and colorful beads. That too shifted in a blink of an eye, his track suit appearing once again.

[Lyra d'Aiglemort]

Lyra nodded, forcing herself to hold Shuu’s gaze as he replied rather than stare longingly at the objects he had pulled from nowhere. Part of her considered telling the man that she couldn’t be trusted with friends, but the rest of her knew, instinctively, that that sort of comment would not land as the reassurance she meant it as.

Luckily Shuu kept talking, flowing forward easily so that Lyra could nod again – attentive without interrupting him. The flicker of distress she thought she’d spotted, where his eyes appeared tight, glided downstream and away.
Lyra let it go.

She relaxed. Hands loose where the grass prickled against her palms. Had grass always been this scratchy? Lyra couldn’t recall a similar moment to this, sitting in the sun, heedless of any important task or any place she needed to hurry towards.

Perhaps Shuu felt the same warm desire. That was her only explanation for the man sitting beside her, lowering himself to the grass as if he wasn’t worried it would stain his clothes.

(He would need baking soda and hydrogen peroxide for grass stains. But the most important part was to use cold water!)

Lyra waited for one heartbeat, and then two, three, before accepting that Shuu wouldn’t retract the silent offer inherent in his wide gestures towards the treasure pile. Her lips pulled wider, focus dropping away from the other as she studied the objects in all their glory.

There were so many things!

She started by tentatively stroking the metal edge of the scooter – aiming for something neutral should this be a trap. It would hurt if all the treasures disappeared now but less than if Lyra had allowed herself to imagine a different reality.

Featherlight touches sent the scooter’s plastic wheel spinning, unable to complete more than a quarter revolution without more force put behind the contact. Lyra tracked Shuu’s motions, delighted when he too singled out an item to toy with.

Her grin was free, almost childlike, as Shuu wiggled the omamori in time with his play on words. She ducked her head, bobbing a series of nods, listening along while slowly touching different objects from the pile.

“Doesn’t everyone try to learn about other people?” Lyra asked, distracted momentarily by the sensation as she rubbed her thumb against the silky-smooth fur of the rabbit’s foot. “Otherwise, how could we communicate? If we don’t first learn what other people are thinking and what they want us to say?”

Questing fingers settled on a dark blue Tamagotchi, curling gently as she pulled the treasure towards her lap.

Lyra eyed the electronic pet like it might come alive and bite her. The whisper of yearning bottled up tight inside her chest seemed to grow louder, joining the burble of the creek and the susurration of leaves rustling in another breeze.

She had nearly pressed the button on the side to wake up the creature inside the Tamagotchi when a shiver climbed her spine with all the speed of a skink. Lyra froze in place, eyes lifting towards Shuu’s face too late to catch his expression when he asked her about herself. Though not too late to see the flicker of ancient kimono, a style her brain couldn't place.

(Body language would have been better.)

In the following silence, the rush of water sweeping past grew to a deafening roar. If she jumped, Lyra wondered idly, would it carry her away as well?

With only a tone to go from, Lyra straightened and set her hands in her lap – mirroring Shuu’s shift towards formality without wincing as the Tamagotchi tumbled to the ground. “Should I ask myself specific questions?”

Lyra’s fingers twitched but she didn’t have a pen to write down the answer. Would she forget this too? Suddenly it seemed very important.

And then like the tide receding Lyra realized Shuu might have meant something completely different. He had to have, to ask her so many questions that required declarative answers. What did he want her to say?

“No, I… I don’t.”

Confusion stirred and Lyra tried to draw more information out of Shuu, clumsily and yet strangely unafraid to be so obvious. She felt like she was watching herself speak from outside her body. Her actions were as destined as the path of a riverbed so what was there to worry about?

“Why would I ask myself questions? I need to learn things so that I can know the answers, the right answers. That’s why…”

That was why what? Lyra felt her brow furrow, disorientation spreading. What was she supposed to say now? They had been talking about surveys, right?

“I think I would like asking people questions. It would be nice to know the answers ahead of time, and maybe if I asked enough people then I could figure out what everyone thought. It would be nice to know.”