dreamcrystals | Shake a tailfeather, soothe a soul

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Shake a tailfeather, soothe a soul

Sender: Madhuri
To: Everyone
Subject: Shall we dance?

I thought at first to write in a rather sad and sorry manner, but I decided I don't want to do any of that and instead focus on positivity.

That moon is dreadfully late, isn't it? Tsk tsk. Should anyone find that pesky silver ball, give it a sound scolding for me, would you? I'll step in line behind you and remind it of a few dream-related annoyances I've had of late.

Well. Not all were annoyances. But if you know what I mean, I'll ask you kindly not to make mention of it. ~~I've embarrassed him enough.~~

ANYWAY, the point of my entry is that I am more than a little concerned with the dreadful dreams I've had flash over the lantern. Thus I offer a service: The Kriegstanz, a specialized dance that draws upon those pesky negative emotions and manifests them into something whose butt I can give my heel. My whole heel. The nastier the thoughts, the tougher the beast.

So while I have volunteered to dance in the square throughout the days until conditions improve and invite you all to bear witness so that I may give you a hand (I'm the one in the horns and a black tail, but I dare say I'm hard to miss even without those features ❤ )... I may need some experienced fighters to back me up on the butt-heeling portion. Sers Zhao and Kasuga, this'll be your big shot. But the more, the merrier.

Heck, I'll bring snacks. It'll be fun. What do you all say?

[ooc: I won't be logging such events unless somebody wants a thread. But do hit me up if you wanna handwave something.]

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I was taught that it stirs the passions of the audience, building a well of courage they didn't know they still had to purge their fears.

My troupe performed in every major city when I first started my career as a dancer. To see that malcontent welling up above the heads of the crowd... it never stops giving me a little chill, but I'm all the more determined to see it through.

Huh. So you actually see it happen? All of the malcontent welling up, I mean. [That's both kinda cool and kinda terrifying, but—] What does something like that even manifest as? Is it different for each person, or does it just sort of make some weird amalgamation of everyone's if it's multiple people?

It's a very visual experience, yes. As for its appearance, they can show as elemental motes of dark energy, ghouls or other shapes those in my world would chalk up as "voidsent".

It may look different here because this isn't [A pause.] Hydaelyn.

The bigger the crowd, the more concentrated the energy. That is correct.

Huh. Do other emotions show up too? Or is just just that from when you do that specific dance?

[She's no stranger to emotions affecting things, or having effects from strong emotions pop up, so she's curious about that now.]

My home world isn't like that, but where I've been for the past few years is. We can use emotion magic— kinda like the dreamotion magic here, actually— and sometimes if our emotions are strong enough, you can have things like... flower petals raining around you if you're happy and in love, or something. They can be negative too, but I don't think anyone ever changed into anything like the Noctaere here. Just... a raincloud following someone, or a downpour of rain when they were sad, that sort of thing.

By design, it's meant to be concentrated positivity to draw out and lure the negative. It's a counter to the Totentanz, where if emotions of ill sort build to too high of a level, the person loses control of their body and essentially dances themselves to death.

Aw, rain clouds of grumpiness sound kind of cute, honestly. How else to say you're having a bad day than hearing a little thunder grumble?

Something like that exists in your world? That makes people dance until they die? I'd take the rainclouds forming around me over that, that's for sure.

[Serah grins at the mention of the rainclouds though. Verens is definitely special in that way!]

Everyone is different though, so if I was sad, the air just got cold around me. If I was happy, a warm wind blew instead. It's kinda neat seeing how emotions manifest for everyone else in Verens, I kinda miss it here. Maybe not the dancing 'til I die thing, though, I don't think I'd miss that.

Villains of the past sure are something. Who wakes up and thinks, "I think I'll invent an evil dance today"?

Oh yes, miss the ever-loving heck out of something like the Totentanz. Here, I seem to sprout flowers all over myself, or all around me. The flowers seem to change depending on the mood, but... I wonder how come? I don't think I've had much affinity for flowers before, besides the gardening.

[Serah's chuckling here at that because really, it's true. But villains are weird and they would do that just to... do it...]

Well if no one's expecting it, isn't it perfect to do? No one's expecting an evil dance and it hurts people until they figure out how to fix it, right?

But I think this place is similar to Verens, just... more dream energy as well. Dreamotion is really similar to the magic we can use in Verens, too! So it's reacting to your emotions, so maybe... you just have a very flowery personality!

If you asked any of my peers, they wouldn't associate flowers with me. Imps? Sure. Goblins? Completely. But I'll take the flowers, to be honest.

Seeing my favorite person and my hair bursts into roses does take some getting used to, though.

I'll bet they love it though! Don't even need to go buy you flowers, just say hello to you and suddenly, flowers from them!

[It's a HUGE pro here, there is no con to that.]

That's really cute though, I'll bet they love it. I know if I saw something like that with someone I liked or loved, it'd make me happy every time I saw it.

It's all rather new to me, but a wonderful experience nevertheless.

It's weird to say, too, because I'm always helping others where I can, but I've never had something like this for myself.

Well, then you just deserve something nice like that! I'm not sure what would happen with me if I saw my someone special here, or how my emotions would manifest here... I haven't really seen anything yet.

[ONE special person was here, but he didn't remember her that way... so it was hard, but she was able to keep her emotions in check, somehow.]

Maybe your dance will also have a different emotion response too? Like when you dance you'll rain roses around you or something.

Ooh, how daring. I know during my limit breaks I tend to manifest lotus blossoms, so there is that.

Maybe I should read up on different flowers, see if I can't make some new types I've never seen before. I'm told there's a 'flower language', so they all mean something and it could help me understand more of this dreamotion thing.

How-e-ver, I can't help but be curious. Tell me about your someone special, give give~

There is a flower language, yeah! Red roses mean love, forget-me-nots are pretty self explanatory but they also mean true love and respect... there's a lot of neat meanings for a lot of flowers. In Verens we have a Flower Festival every year and it's kinda lovey-dovey, but you learn flower meanings pretty well after a few of those.

[Ah... she misses home sometimes, and the big festivals is a big reason. Time with friends and her loved ones... actually being with her significant other, too. So when Madhuri asks her question, while the au ra can't see it, Serah's blushing a little. Hard to say "oh yes, he's here, but he doesn't remember me because he's not the same one" without that hurting.]

Ah... well, there's Snow. He's my hero, but I haven't seen him for some years now. He wasn't in Verens when I got there, and since I know he'd be happier if I was happy with someone, I'm... with someone in Verens, too. It's a weird situation, and not a decision I made lightly. It took a lot of time to really think about, but ultimately, I know how Snow would feel. So my other half in Verens is tall, dark, and handsome! He can be a brat, but he's surprisingly kind, too, when he wants to be. Likes to fight, but will also fight to protect the people he cares about.

[So it was true... she needed to start asking around more about flower language. If her dreams were full of symbols, then it stood to reason that her dreamotion likely had symbols of their own for her to deduce.

But oh, this was just the sort of thing she wanted to read. You get a little tired of all the, 'No! There's nobody!' denials or 'Nunya Bizniz' she'd been getting of late. Honestly, some people here were no fun.]

Nothing involving the heart should ever be made lightly. I trust that you made the right call.

Wow, I've never read "tall, dark, and handsome" outside of a storybook, though! This guy must be the real deal. Brats tend to be the best ones, too!

I like to think I did. He's pretty loyal and would probably fight a dragon as big as a mountain for me if I needed it.

[...this is probably literal too, for a lot of reasons, but—]

Haha, he is the real deal. I think he'd probably be an almost-villain in a storybook, but all of a sudden would turn against the real bad guy at the last second.

I think they call those "anti-heroes" or "reluctant heroes". Oh, those are kind of rare.

You read about them in stories but very rarely are they real. How very interesting. Are you sure you're not from some story somehow?

Pretty sure I'm not! I dunno, he might take a little offense to being called a hero, I'll have to call him that the next time I see him, see what he does.

...so do you think this kind of talk would become that kind of dance you were talking about? Because I could talk about him all day.

[A dance... of words.]

If talk could do something like the 'stanz, boy oh boy could I take on so many demons.

But who knows? I don't know who made the dance and how, but possibilities are endless in a place like this. I can imbue words with further power and meaning, after all, as a Qalli. We can speak little, but imply so much.

I guess we'll have to try that out too, then! See if a dance of words will help out just as much! Plus, it is a dream world, so that could help a lot, I think.

For now, I'll grab my things and help you dispel the real bad dreams, help out as many as I can with you.

That would be wonderful! Thank you so much. Why, I could dance all day but any extra firepower would be grandly appreciated.

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Shake a tailfeather, soothe a soul

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good to wrap soonish i think? :3

Absolutely.