☆ 01

[guiltapalooza]

[Willow's been practicing, and practicing with intent. This is the second or third night of sleep that she's been at this. She's at a point in her life where she feels responsible, like she's the one who has to step up and take care of things now that Buffy's gone, so when Anya tells her that A, she's seen Buffy and it wasn't the Buffybot, and B, this is probably a dream, she immediately tries to deduce what's going on.

Conclusion: shared consciousness, as she'd thought. It explained a lot. Willow stands from where she'd been sitting cross-legged in absolutely nothing, and decides to try something else out. The current surroundings of pure, unrelieved white, massive blankness, are challenging to keep up. She'd had to stay in meditation for a good while to get it down, but she thinks she's getting the hang of this now. It's not so different from magic, just all mentally based and without the props.

Anyway, her new experiment. This takes a different sort of concentration, and in the fringes of her vision as she tries, the Summers house starts to bleed into the blank environment like paint on a canvas. An open, cheerful, lived in two story, it's a bit cluttered but clearly loved. Willow frowns in frustration, and it vanishes completely.

She tries one more time, and thinks she has it. When she speaks, it's directly to you, wherever you are - and if you answer, you'll find yourself suddenly, mysteriously beside her, in the way that abrupt shifts in dreams feel natural and unsurprising.]

Buffy, if you're out there, I need to speak to you. [The hard cast to her face, set and determined, relinquishes into an edge of vulnerability.] ... Please.

To everyone else - we're dreaming, and we're dreaming together. If you concentrate, you can learn how to change things, but it takes some effort to get the trick. Like riding a bicycle or learning to swim. I'd be interested to know what you've experienced so far; this is more than a simple dream.

[ooc: IF YOU DON'T WANT YOUR CHARACTER TO KNOW THEY'RE DREAMING YET, her mental 'call' failed for your character and they never got it. As in, feel free to ignore this. Otherwise, proceed. This post is a placeholder - I'm going to bed and will get to tags tomorrow. |D]

Comments

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[It's Mercury that Willow manages to summon, suddenly simply there, seated comfortably, legs dangling. She's known something isn't right, something is just slightly unreal enough to be an impressionist painting - clearly recognizable, easy to accept for what it is, yet not distinct and clear, and certainly not the thing itself.

Some of her dreams, she's even already been told she's been dreaming. So it fits a missing piece into place when someone claims all of this is shared dreaming.

She's excited at once, almost girlish. Shared dreaming is such a rare phenomenon! If she could figure out its inner workings, they could have a real advantage against- They could have had a real advantage against the Death Busters, who played with dreams supernaturally. The senshi of knowledge, of all people, understands how thin the line between magic and the capability of technology can be.

She takes a few sharp steps towards Willow, and her face breaks into a smile at the girl who'd helped her in her last battle.]

I'll help you research it, if you want.

[guiltapalooza]

[Willow would smile back, and is generally unphased at her sitting in midair - but she's too tired, and focused, to be her usual cheerful self. Right now she has one hot button: bringing Buffy back to life, and that's been pushed relentlessly over the past couple days.]

I'd appreciate that. I'm not unfamiliar with dream-based magic, but I've never been a big fan. Do you have any experience with it?

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

Our enemies used it. But we never did ourselves. Zoisite might be able to; his mental powers are formidable when he makes up his mind.

[Of course, unfortunately, Mercury is not Zoisite.]

[guiltapalooza]

Do you know if he's around, or did you ever pick anything up from him? [she asks instantly. Again with the naming schemes, she thinks, wondering if there's other gemstone-themed people in Mercury's world.]

[waterfell.livejournal.com]

[Willow should ask - there are so many gemstone-themed names where Mercury is from! The four shitennou, and almost all of their enemies even also derive names from stones.]

He hasn't entered these dreams. I'm sure of that.

[It would have been reported; something like this is too close to the Dead Moon spells to let it go without a word to the others. Mercury will be speaking with them, too.]

Guess I'll work on finding out if I can achieve that sort of power.

[slayerpreferred.livejournal.com]

[She frowns, though she's used to appearing strange places by now.]

Willow.

[guiltapalooza]

... Buffy. [her breath catches, and she can feel tears rising but stubbornly represses them]

Is this really you? I'm not just dreaming you because my subconscious has clued in that I'm really, really worried? Cause, worried isn't a strong enough word. I need-- a different one.

[slayerpreferred.livejournal.com]

... It's really me, Will.

[guiltapalooza]

So you've been here the whole time? Not-- not hell?

[painhumbles.livejournal.com]

[So sarcastically] Oh, is that all? I was starting to wonder if someone slipped me a vision quest mickey.

[guiltapalooza]

Don't vision quests usually have a point? [she answers dryly.] Not so much seeing a point here, except to confuse.

I was expecting something more... nefarious. Well, it could still be nefarious, I just haven't come across it yet.

[painhumbles.livejournal.com]

That's probably because Freddy Krueger's got the week off.

[guiltapalooza]

Freddy Kreuger I can handle. Faceless dream thing I'm not so sure about. I like to have the info before I go trying to lay smack down; usually turns out better.

[auncyenhalig.livejournal.com]

I've seen a park, a beach, a kitchen, a book club meeting ... [ she ticks these things off her fingers before looking at Willow. there's something tense in her smile. ] Pretty ordinary things. Let's not make a big deal about it!

[ except they were all from other people's minds, from other worlds. Aerith understands that -- but she doesn't want to have another "unusual" thing in her life that people take interest in. ]

[guiltapalooza]

I'm only making a big deal out of it because usually when this stuff happens, there's something evil afoot. And if there is, I need to stop it.

[Willow shakes her head, more to clear it than in negation.] Someone that's supposed to be dead is here. I need to know what's going on.

[auncyenhalig.livejournal.com]

Someone who's dead ... ? [ what a surprise, though not as much as it could (should?) be. she has always been able to hear the dead, after all. she just hadn't heard of them dreaming.

what does it mean, that she keeps getting closer and closer to the dead? and there was that other woman in the dreams -- the one who couldn't wake up ... ]

Maybe we're drawing close to death. -- But wow, wouldn't that be depressing! One too many ghost stories for me.

[ she'd always been able to hear the dead ... "Usually when this stuff happens, there's something evil afoot. I need to stop it." she looks over at the other girl, considering. ] So ... who are you, Willow? [ and the use of the name to make it clear she doesn't mean simple introductions. ] How do you think you fit into this?

[guiltapalooza]

[She sighs. Willow isn't quite arrogant enough yet to assume that this has anything to do with her, specifically.] I'm a witch, and I don't know how I fit in. I've fought demons, monsters, malicious spirits, all manner of creepy crawly for a long time, with my friends. I can't let something like this go when I run across it; I have to find out.

As for drawing close to death... [She looks speculative. Willow's been doing a lot of reading on resurrection lately, not that she'll mention that.] You might be onto something, but I can't be sure just yet.

[likethetragedy.livejournal.com]

[She's aware something has been off lately. There has been no future to be seen during some of her meditation sessions. On some nights, she even manages to sleep a full night. All she had to do was enter this nameless place filled with strangers she had been carefully avoiding. She had been suspecting Stick. The old man did love to play games but, this little message cleared that misunderstanding up. Someone knew what they were doing in this place. Elektra was determined to see what they had come up with.]

Who are you?

[She arrives in her trademark red silk outfit, long straight hair covering her face. Elektra always felt her strongest dressed like this and she couldn't afford to feel weak in front of someone clever enough to do pull a stunt like this.]

[guiltapalooza]

[Well. That's an interesting outfit. Willow focuses with an effort.]

I'm Willow, [she says simply.] The resident witch. Who are you? [Despite the abruptness, she asks more or less politely.]

[likethetragedy.livejournal.com]

A witch. [She mulls it over in her head before responding. If she hadn't reacted to the outfit odds were she wouldn't recognize her name.] Elektra. What do you have so far?

[guiltapalooza]

[Only in the sense of the Greek tragedy, but Willow doesn't babble so much these days, so that doesn't get mentioned. She's all business.]

It's something like a shared, collective subconscious, [she explains.] To be honest, it's not easy to put it into words. We're all contributing to each other's dreams, in a... a very fluid way.

So far my big question is, what's the point? Why are we here in the first place? This stuff doesn't arise out of nowhere. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'm inclined to think there's something afoot.

[hasasoul.livejournal.com]

Buffy? Why do you need to speak to Buffy?

[guiltapalooza]

Why do you think? We've gone over this! She's dead but she's apparently still here anyway. I need to know what's going on!

[hasasoul.livejournal.com]

I saw her.

[guiltapalooza]

Great, thanks. Do you have any other info?