onepassingnight | Don't Panic

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Don't Panic

[Welcome to a wide expanse of... nothing. It's a bunch of white space, not unlike how some digital worlds look when they're loading large portions of new data. Just pristine white as far as the eye can see... and the only thing of color, is a young man sitting cross-legged with his omnipresent cape fluttering in the wind. Getting closer, it becomes obvious just why he's sitting there. There are a pair of coffee tables set up forming an L-shape, covering the space to the right and in front of him. Heaped on the tables and in neat little stacks around him are... books?

If anyone happened to know Kamina fairly well, the notion of him becoming a serious bookworm was probably a sign of impending apocalypse. Thankfully for anyone that might be inclined to run off and proclaim that the end times were upon the world, the books didn't have much in the way of words -more picture albums of varied cities and time periods with maybe a paragraph at most to explain each one.

A moment passes and it seems that he's pretty entranced by whatever he's reading when a sudden gust fills the area. The floor trembles briefly before an asphalt city street suddenly forms underfoot. And with a low rumble, countless buildings begin to erupt from the ground as they rise to their appropriate heights.

The young man stands to his feet with an amused expression as he studies his handiwork; not a recreation of any specific place. But the mood and architecture of the area he's dreamed up here looks an awful lot like the cities of America, circa the late 1940s. Might be a good time to ask him what in the hell is going on before he starts adding things like people and music.]

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[ Well that's interesting. Tifa was thrown off by the sudden appearance of the city -- she'd just been headed towards the youth seated on the ground with the books when the scenery had appeared from nowhere.

It wasn't something she was used to.

Still, managing to get her bearings, Tifa approaches the boy in front of her (with a little trepidation-- he doesn't look dangerous, but then again, neither do the rabbits outside Edge), one hand reaching up to tuck her hair behind her ears. ] Excuse me.. what just happened, here?

[Well... a boy by age anyway. When he hears that sound of another voice, he smoothly rises to his feet before turning to face his 'guest'. Frankly, he was in a great mood right now and admittedly, that probably made him more trusting than he should be.]

It's great, ain't it?

[Kamina's cape flaps in the wind as he give a cursory glance at the newly-unfolded city, thus far finding that the fruits of his efforts meet his standards.]

Finally getting around to making my own space around here! But I got the idea that if it's all dreams and shit here, then why just settle for making a world I'll never see again?

[He pauses a moment to let that sink in, buying him a moment to eye the young lady in his presence.]

So I made something new and different! What'do ya think?!

[ She smiles at him, his enthusiasm a little contagious. ] You made it? I think it's great. I've never really seen anything like it.

[He gives a nod before giving another cursory look to his new stomping grounds.]

Me neither.

[Completely casual and yet that look on his face still says he's plentifully amused.]

Found out pretty early on in my stay here that I'm dead as a doornail back where I came from. So I thought if I was gonna carve out some space of my own here, I'd wanna see something different! Something amazing!

[She's been there before: Limbo. The white emptiness between life and death. This reminds her of it. She comes forward slowly, footsteps echoing against nothing somehow.

Ami turns sharply the moment things begin to build and grow; but she's done this sort of thing herself in the dream world. After a moment to take her bearings again, then she finally demands her answer from Kamina.]

What is all this?

[Ah good, a familiar voice. And not just any familiar voice, but one of the people he'd been hoping he'd run into. Frankly, their past few encounters had ended on something of a downer note -Mercury would prove to be an exceptional challenge for him to bring around. It wasn't a matter of good, evil, positive or negative... to him, getting her to come around was a matter of giving her something with substance to hedge her bets on.

He wanted her to believe with the same spirit and fervor that he did. And not in something as trivial as hate. It was believing in something; in herself, in those around her and most importantly, in those closest to her. Even if he was willing to bet that she'd probably be a fair deal more subdued with such an outlook. Well, at least on the outside.

Kamina rises with his usual dramatic flair, his cape fluttering behind him as he crosses his arms over his chest.]

What's it look like, I'm bangin' out a section of the dream world for me. It's really something, ain't it?

It can be kind of fun to do that. But if you're letting others in here, it won't stay as yours.

[It's just a habitual banter at this point; though she sees it as true. Once he invites in the outside, the solace of that strict control - as she would see it - is lost.]

[He gives a casual shrug at that remark. Of course he didn't have any intention to keep it as entirely his. That would get boring. Not to mention kind of lonely. He probably didn't explain himself right, this wasn't a sanctuary by any means, this was a stage for some mind-blowing adventure.

And if he got lucky and could kick things properly in his favor, maybe he'd be able to turn the outlook of a couple people he knew around.]

Of course! If I made a place just for me, it'd get boring as hell in a hurry. This is gonna be a gathering place of fiery spirits!

[Anxious to show what he had in mind, he clears some of the books away from one of the coffee tables, revealing a laptop with a video file cued up. And while the operation of the peculiar device was still fairly new to him, he'd thankfully been wandering from dream to dream and finding a few that had such devices to at least get the gist of how to work it. Thankfully, while he's not tech-savvy by any stretch, it seems even he could figure out the basics on his own. And it didn't hurt that because it was stuff he was dreaming up, all the media he needed was right on the desktop.]

But I got the idea for this place from this!

[A quick hotkey tap sends the video into motion; a clip show of late 1940s to 1950s cop, gangster and detective movies. Most of them involving car chases, gun battles and live shows at night clubs with an often fem fatale-looking singer.]

It's a little old-fashioned, but I guess you could call it retro by now.

[The bland words cover her surprise that he really had this place intended to be used by everyone. She wouldn't have thought that way herself.]

[He offers a casual shrug in reply. While it was a reminder of an era that long pre-dated her on her own world, to Kamina this was brand new. With the ability to pick and choose what combines to create his dream, he would probably feel like a kid in a candy shop... if he'd seen a candy shop.

And with the kind of outlook he tended to have, of course whatever he came up with would be used by everyone he knew and even the people he didn't know.]

It's not an exact copy of the stuff from that book or those movies either.

[He offers Mercury a wide grin.]

If I did this right, there's surprises in all this that even I don't know about.

[She likes, finally, having control of what's around her - she'd had so little for most of her life, between living for other people's expectations and then, the Dark Kingdom's goals, Kunzite's goals which intertwined with her own.

So her words come out a bit unsure.]

You want that? Not to know? Even though this is yours?

Well if you knew everything that was going to happen; exactly what to expect from anything at anytime, you can't tell me you wouldn't get bored as hell.

[He lets that sink in for a moment as he casually walks over to a stack of fruit crates outside of what looked like an old-time grocery store. Kamina wastes little time in snatching up an apple for himself, before tossing another for Mercury to catch.]

I don't know all of what you've been through. From what I can tell from the shit you have told me, it's some pretty dark stuff. [A pause to rub the apple on the shoulder of his cape and then take a bite into it.] But the way I'm seeing it here; it's a whole new world. What happened before can't be helped, so unless you just wanna wallow in all the misery the world before left you with. [Another bite.] You gotta push forward and write a better ending for yerself here.

And for a guy like me, that means having surprises to deal with. Nothin's worth doing if it's too easy, am I right?

You're wrong.

[So easy to say. But she's sure of herself. She doesn't look at him, still angled away.]

We already ended the past the way we wanted to.

[In a world where fate would repeat, acknowledging the past and fighting to stop it was the way the forward.]

[He doesn't flinch or turn his gaze from her. At most, he continues to casually munch away at his apple as she speaks, being courteous enough to pay attention to what she says... which admittedly, isn't too much.]

So then where am I wrong? Last time we talked, you kept going on about doing all kinds of stuff that you regretted -even if it was for the right reasons.

What I'm saying is that here is your second chance at things -to do things without all the stuff that happened before tying you down. That's the point I'm getting at.

[To fight fate is something that Kamina would wholeheartedly agree with. The path one took and what lay at the end of that road were things he felt that each person had to determine for themselves.]

This is a dream. It won't change reality.

[She's speaking too generally, but it's to make a point:]

What happened is already happened and done.

Hmm, that's right. Keep forgetting you're just dreaming... it's kinda hard with you sometimes.

[None the less, his expression seems largely unphased aside from that note of commentary.]

So then yeah, it's happened and it's over with. So you can either keep beating the shit outta yerself for it even in yer dreams. Or you can start doing things here and figure out how to move on. Even if it's a dream, it gives ya something to aim for when ya wake up.

[How to move on.]

I move forward. [In a way, of course, it's true; they have a future, and they wouldn't have. She even has a life outside that, as a doctor.]

And I wouldn't undo what happened even if it were possible.

I'm not saying that you should. But I gotta admit that listening to you sometimes, it sounds like you're at least beating the crap outta yourself for doing what you thought was right.

[He grins.]

Seems like it's on yer mind a lot too. Cause I'm sitting here wondering how me liking stuff being unpredictable got us here.

[If she just forgot about it, if death was really that easy to deal, she'd lose the parts of herself she didn't want to totally lose; Kunzite had warned her of that much, in his indirect and taunting way.

And more, she'd become like the princess.

Of course, she comes at it another way, a less personal way.]

Planning to become my therapist?

[It wasn't so much a matter of forgetting about anything. Just it seemed to be a constant occupation on her mind; whenever he encountered her, the matter of the actions she took always seemed to come up in one fashion or another.

The way she phrases things forces him to pause for a moment. It takes a moment for him to mentally jog remembering the word 'therapist' from his memory. Finding so much around the different dreams had exposed him to more books -those things with countless words printed inside them. And while he'd been learning to read in life, this afterlife had somehow made the process of continuing to learn a modest bit easier. Though that particular term had only come up a few times in the things he'd read.]

Tch, nah. I'll listen if you've got a problem and even try to help ya with it. But all the making sense of dreams, gestures and other crap like that bores me.

[She could probably use one. But even if it wouldn't be admitting a rather giant weakness, who could she trust? And even if she could trust them, who could really cope with the scope of it? And even if someone could, who'd want the responsibility of such a high-profile patient (aside from the money and prestige it could bring them - which made her uninterested if that was all it was about for them)?]

Freudian analysis is outdated.

[It's the first thought to jump into her head. Then, when she's less caught off-guard by that simple offer to listen:]

Let's just explore this place for now, then. We have more to build.

[He blinked a moment when she brought up 'Freudian analysis'. Granted, he wasn't stupid by any stretch -just he had no idea who the guy it was named after was and honestly, he didn't care. But at least he could appreciate that she seemed willing to push aside whatever guilt she was carrying and do something more than just dwell on it.

Truth be told, he wasn't planning to give up on working on that outlook of hers by any stretch. Just he needed to know more about the kind of person she was, the kind of life she led and just what happened to make her that way. And it just wasn't his way of doing things to listen while she talked on a couch -not by any stretch. This would be something done through getting on her good side; swapping stories, experiences and just doing things together. He would show her that she could afford to hope and believe and that those things could yield payoff. And while he had little patience, this was something important enough that he'd try playing that subtle game he sucked at for now.

A real man would never consider it below him to do things in new ways anyway.]

Now that's the kinda attitude I'm looking for!

[Kamina gives the new 'city' a quick glance around.]

Let's see, so we've got a style for how the place looks. What'do you think would be a nice touch? I know I wanna get some Ganmen in here... just can't decide how yet.

An amusement park.

[The answer is so obvious to her that it comes out almost automatically; yet it may not be the first thing someone would expect her to name.

She doesn't bother explaining herself. She simply emphasizes it.]

I want to see an amusement park here.

[But not Juuban's; she's been warned against building dreams from memories before and besides,

[Her answer was appreciably blunt and to the point. No guessing games, no complexities: just how he liked things.]

Easy enough... let's see...

[Kamina seems to enjoy being the architect of his own dreams. If Mercury should glance at the table, next to the laptop he'd learned to operate, she might notice a stack of DVDs, the titles ranging from the Matrix to Fantasia, Spirit -a venerable gamut of amusement. Clearly he'd been here getting crazy ideas for awhile.

In either case, he casually brushes off the second table, the one not occupied by the laptop just in time for a model of the city to materialize on its surface. Scratching his head, the young man pans it around and scratches his chin before getting a particularly pleased grin on his face.]

How about right here?

[He gestures to a section of town that ran alongside a beach that apparently had yet to materialize.]

We'll put one spot for a good time next to another!

It's a good spot. Right by the water. [She draws closer to examine the city, pausing several feet away but taking in every detail with a thoughtful expression.]

Will it fit there? With everything else nearby?

[Her queries prompt a hearty bellow of a laugh from him before he offers his usual confident smirk.]

Heh, the place is still being built! We can make it fit anywhere!

[Kamina gives a dismissive gesture toward the map, the few buildings present along that part of the beach sinking into the table as a fairly typical-looking amusement park pops up in their place.]

Huh... now I ain't actually been to one of these before. I just saw 'em in the movies I swiped. What's some good stuff to go in it?

A ferris wheel. And, a carousel. The haunted house, too.

[All the typical places present in any amusement park at all. Perhaps she'd get to her own touches later.]

[More than likely she would. The more other people contributed to this city, the less of it was specifically his... and really, he didn't mind if his world was a creation of all the people that even came to visit him. Honestly, that notion made it all the more entertaining -more things to experience first hand that he may not even have the slightest of idea of.]

The first two are kinda tame... but they're pretty important, huh? So we'll have to add those. That last part though, I'll want something really good.

[Kamina's thoughts go on hold at that moment, thinking that this remote stuff was hardly the way to do anything. A guy like him did everything upfront and personal!]

Oi, let's go for a ride!

[And at that moment, a 1940s-style cab appears nearby and the door opens for the two passengers.]

If we're gonna do this, we should be right there to work on it!

[Calling her favorite rides lame made her a little put out, and she stood her ground peevishly.]

I like them. The carousel and ferris wheel.

[When the cab pulled up, she got into it first, without looking back to see if Kamina truly joined her or not.]

[To his defense, he'd called them tame. While he could be brash and even fairly inconsiderate at times, he did take some conscious steps to avoid stepping on the toes of the people he considered his friends. All the same, it wasn't like he didn't have any intention of leaving them out -he said that they would have to add them after all and he was a man of his word.]

Well I figured as much if they were the first things ya brought up.

[Such was his first comment as he settles into the cab and closes the door. He doesn't say anything, just makes a hand gesture to the driver to get them going... it was his dream after all and at least while he was building the dream itself, everything that wasn't another person damn well had better pay heed to his slightest whims.]

Anyway, part of why we're going down is to design 'em ourselves.

The ferris wheel should be tall enough to have a view of the entire beach. Lit up at night.

[The carousel... the carousel should be perfect from the tinny music to the feeling of the motion to that vague sense of the place that always seems to draw her to where she loved to go as a child.]

What are you adding for yourself?

[He nods in reply to her notion. It didn't sound like a bad idea -in fact, the idea that it should light up too struck him as genius. The ones he'd seen in the different books were fairly simple daytime-run affairs without any lights, but when he tried to picture a really big one lit up in the evening, the concept was just the kind of amazing thing he was looking for.]

Well the main thing I wanna add is a friggin' amazing roller coaster! I want something that'll get yer blood pumping every time you get on and take a ride!

[She knows, these days, how to create an effect, how to get a reaction. She applies it to the amusement park plans, now.]

Then it should be fast, with a lot of turns and upside-down portions. Something really exciting.

[Conversely, this was part of the reason why he didn't just want the world he created to be of his own labors. Especially since 'waking' in a world comprised of countless, interlinked dreams like this, it didn't take him long to figure out that there was a lot he hadn't seen. And a great deal of such things were easily appreciable from where he stood. So if he wanted to get the most out of his world being some place amazing, it really would work best for it to be the result of many different people.]

Yeah and at least a couple loops! Maybe one of those rises where you go up and then instead of going over, it sends you through backwards!

Ah, how scary! [She drags out the word with entirely faked fright. But that's part of the fun, isn't it? The pretense that it's even more scary than it could be in reality.]

It should be one of those standing-up roller coasters!

[He grins at her reaction, getting the tiniest hint that perhaps she's been on more than her share of the rides. Certainly seemed like a good idea for him to have brought her on board as a 'creative consultant'.]

Standing up, huh?

[Kamina pauses a moment to try and picture how that would work, his imagination shuffling through a couple ideas before he settles on something.]

Yeah! That'd be pretty damn awesome!

You're getting pretty excited about this. Could it be you enjoy them, too?

[Unexpected, if so. Kamina had seemed more at-home on the ship. Or even here. Acting interested in amusement parks seemed to be indulging her; and behind that is the question of why.]

[She just...stands there in amazement.]

What...is this??

[Oh look, just who he wanted to see. Well that makes things a lot better now, doesn't it?]

Oi! Yoko!

[Kamina takes a few steps toward her, gesturing to his new play space and doing a little-not-really-twirl, but turn-in-place step before continuing toward the redhead.]

What'do ya think?! It's great, ain't it?!

U-uhm--

[She's a little overwhelmed right now. Give her a second.]

What...what is this place?

[Yoko is pretty sure it's not something that Kamina came up with this on his own--she hasn't seen the table yet--but she's never seen a city before.]

My own little dream world place... I've been to a bunch of other ones since I got here and decided I wanted my own.

[He gestures to the table and stacks of photo books.]

I grabbed these from other people's dreams for ideas cause I wanted something different and new from what I was used to!

[She glances at the books.]

...Can I look through them?

[Maybe a little bit of an odd question, but for some reason she felt that it would be considerate to ask permission. Perhaps it was because she'd be looking through his mind?]

[He blinks a little, kind of surprised that that she would want to see the books rather than dive right in and help him come up with things to add. But then, the very notion that he'd been reading must've been a shock... and she might be curious about just what he'd been using as source material.]

Eh?

Go on a head. Doesn't bug me at all. It's all stuff I grabbed from other dream worlds to look at here.

[How was Yoko supposed to help when she hadn't intentionally made notes of the other dreams she had been in. All she could offer was what she knew from home, and she can pretty much guarantee that Kamina isn't interested in seeing any of that.

She takes a seat and flips through the pages, more interested in the pictures than the words.]

So this is a city...[she looks up at him] Why this one, instead of all the others?

Well, the pictures yer lookin' at along with...

[He clears away a stack of books on one of the tables to reveal... a laptop? Of all the things he's learned to use, he'd admit that he was rather proud that he'd figured out how to make the device work. A close glance at the keys would reveal a particular array of smudges in the rough shape of his forehead. Apparently learning to use it wasn't as smooth as he'd like some people to think.

The device revealed, he taps a key on it, prompting a 1940s cop and gangster movie to play.]

I saw one of these in another guy's dream. He had a bunch of 'em, so I helped myself to one.

But after I saw some pictures in the books, I knew I wanted to know how all this stuff looked with people and stuff moving around... and then I found the movie we're watching on this thing. When I saw that, I knew that I had to try it for myself!

[He chuckles for a moment.]

But just a copy 'd be too boring... so I mixed all kinds of stuff in with it!

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Don't Panic

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whoops, my eyes messed up a letter XD

No worries. Just figured I'd roll with it.

sure~ <3

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