onepassingnight

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☆ 01

[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]

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[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.

... That's quite the list. [ Mercury and Willow, world-saving soldier and witch, and both of them look her age or younger.

if all of this is real ... there are some incredible people out there -- and before she had supposed that maybe these were visions from the Planet, proddings of some sort, real-but-not-real. But Willow is suggesting to her that what's happening with the dreams is Wrong. She may still turn out to be a figment of her imagination, but she is not a projection of the Planet's will, because the Planet has never encouraged her to doubt it. and Aerith is confident enough in her feelings to believe that if she has dreams that seem meaningful, they in fact are.

... processing the paradigm shift from Possibly Important Planet Matter to Possibly Important Maybe-Multidimensional Business is going to take Aerith some time. ]

So you're ... really a witch? And you're not from Gaia. I don't think this is evil, but ... [ she sighs, propping her chin up on her hands, thinking hard. ] ... Maybe I really am just making all this up.

Oh, I don't think you're making it up, [she discounts immediately.] I've done extensive testing on that, and it's not a product of one person's mind. It's more like a... melding, and something else.

But yes, I'm a witch, magic-doing and all. I'm not from Gaia unless you mean in the goddess Gaia sense, where everyone's all made of the same elements and our life force is connected to every other living thing that exists. Otherwise, no. I'm from Earth.

... That's ... [ really, really odd, Willow, because of course she means a place and not a goddess but there has been worship and legends of a goddess and every living thing is connected to every other. ] But lives are connected. That might be how dreams are being shared, because our souls and the Planets' are ... connecting? [ her hands rise up, fingers intertwining, a half-unconscious demonstration of her thoughts. her eyes are far off, lost in thought. this is getting very, very strange, and she has no idea what it means for the Planet and isn't sure if she should be worried about what it means for her. ]

[Thoughtfully,] Across dimensional boundaries? You might be onto something. I haven't done a lot of looking into the "everything is connected" part of magic. This thing is really stretching my limits as it is.

[Willow might be similarly concerned, except she's dealt with a lot of worrisome world-altering things before. She can't help but feel kind of been there, done that about it.]

[ she doesn't stay quiet for long. it's not her way. her green eyes look to Willow again. ] So what are all the other "parts of magic"?

[ she feels like there's so much she doesn't know right now. ]

Oh... well. The sky's the limit there. It's not like, um, Dungeons and Dragons magic, though - not very good for combat unless you have some serious power. My magic takes preparation, research, and supplies... though you can break the rules if you know what you're doing.

Huh. Your magic doesn't sound at all like my world's. [ At least, what's loosely called "magic". ... It is D&D magic. ] A lot it is for fighting, and you don't need research as long as you've got the supply. And some idea what you're doing. But if the sky's the limit, you must do a lot of other things. [ she laughs slightly as she thinks of what Willow said. ] ... Break the rules often?

On occasion, [she admits.] When I need to. It's not always a good idea, cause it can end up with problems a whole lot worse than burnt carpet.

If all you need is supply for your magic, what exactly is the supply?

Materia. They're formed from the Lifestream when it condenses and hold the Planet's knowlege. I have ... one. [ She lifts her hand up to the ribbon in her hair, where Willow might spot a pale materia peeking out from the side. ] But this one doesn't do anything at all. [ She closes her eyes, smiling. ] It's a memory.

[The whole thing is similar enough to the Wiccan theory of magic that Willow doesn't find it too foreign.] Memories are important, [she acknowledges.] And working with the planet, even moreso. You can accomplish a lot if you ask it instead of force it - it just takes some talent to do the asking.

Oh! Yes. That's a great way to think. [ She's kind of excited to hear Willow say that, actually, since most people in Midgar would just scoff at "ask the Planet". ] There's a balance, the Planet can't just give and give and give. You have to give something as well. Too many people try to just take ...

Pretty big on the environment, huh? If I had more time on my hands I'd probably be more of an activist. [Hard to maintain her social conscience when she and her friends seemed to face near death on a weekly basis - or, more recently, actual death.]

Well, it does sound like you're awfully busy with all those things you fight, but if you could make the time someday... [ A slight smile -- she's not exactly out to persuade anyone into activism when she herself isn't. She gardens, which helps the Planet by itself, but she'd just get herself in trouble if she went campaigning against Shinra. ]

I used to be really into that. Oppression, native peoples, fairness and equality to all... Now it's like there's so many me things to worry about, the abstract other people are very abstract.

[ It's sad, considering her ancestors are just fairy tales. She's not exactly sure what happened, but she always got a certain impression from Ifalna's words ... they were left in the past. ] Get too abstract and no one will see them anymore. [ But then she smiles. ] We can do little things. Asking instead of taking, like you said!

[ And one day she will be able to really help the Planet, she thinks. She certainly hopes. ]

So your magic works with the planet too. That's not so different.

[Willow smiles back in agreement. Little things she can manage.]

--Oh, yeah, it does. It uses and redirects the natural forces that are already in play. It's not easy to do that, though - most people never even realize they're there.

[ Really sounding similar. Aerith nods, hand going to her chin in thought. ]

What are you planning to do about the dreams? Do you know a way to find out more about them?

I'm not sure, [she answers, accepting the topic change without a blink.] Dream stuff is tricky. I've been figuring out how to change them, but the fact that nothing is interfering with me as I do alter them makes me wonder what the purpose behind this is.

All I can do is research, I guess, when I have the time in the waking world.

That does seem a little odd, if there's no guide to what we dream about...

And gather information from other dreamers, right? I don't know how much this helped, but it's nice to be able to talk to others about what's happening.

Yeah! [Willow perks up.] I got kind of intense about it earlier, but talking to people in the same situation is nice. We should get to know each other if we're all going to be stuck like this, right?

[ She nods. ] Better not to be complete strangers peeping in each others' dreams. You've seen what I do already. I'm a flower girl from the city of Midgar.

I'm a college student, but it's summer vacation right now. And I'm kind of an emergency part time big sis to Dawnie - me and Tara are, I mean. That part's a... long story. [Long depressing story filled with death, so she tries to verbally scoot around it.]

[ She waves it off. ] Not that much information. Getting to know each other means no pressure! But it's nice of you to be there for her. And going to school on top of everything else ... wow. That's a lot to do. Big plans for the future?

Surviving? [she offers weakly.] Sorry, my life is sort of... more complicated and personal than mundane. Not that great for casual chatting, if I'm being honest.

☆ 01

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