dreamcrystals | Safe Haven

Sender: Madhuri Qalli
To: Everyone
Subject: Pushing Back

I'm throwing my hat in alongside everyone else in offering my aid should you need it. Truly, I had been thinking of late that I should shift my direction when it comes to my humble Lady of Bliss. With this in mind, I'll need a day or two to shift things around, but then I will throw my doors wide open to offer a place of positive dreamotion, good food and a willing horn that can hear your tales or even your smalltalk. The folk that have offered their services are amply welcome to make use of my facility should they require a meeting place under one stipulation: That privacy is given when people ask for it, and to proceed with no judgment. Some of you feel that you are perfectly okay, and that is fine. You are welcome regardless. Some of you feel that nobody can help you, and while that isn't true, it is OK to not feel OK. You are welcome, and I want nothing more than to hear you and feed you. I am little more than an adventurer, but I have seen some of the deepest hells, and have fought a countless number of inner battles. I do not speak from inexperience. Please consider it, even if you want to spend an afternoon with a good meal, or just want a hug. Or both. I care about each of you, even if I have not met you yet. Thank you all for your time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fantastic! I look forward to it. I hope until then you take at least a nap. If not, well... I have methods.

I've just woken up from one, actually. If you call twelve uninterrupted hours a 'nap'. The bad news is that my everything hurts. The good news is that Dante came over earlier with painkillers and juice, so hopefully I'll have a swift recovery.

I've had worse.

I believe that. Also I believe a twelve-hour nap is best labeled an itty bitty hibernation. "Coma" sounds too clinical.

coma might be medically inaccurate, but there's a strong argument for idiomatic fitness, there.

When and where would you like to have this incredibly unpleasant conversation?

My establishment tomorrow perhaps, anytime you'd like.

And so the appointed hour came.

Akechi had traveled to the Lady of Bliss. Not too early, only around ten in the morning, looking... tired, really, that wasn't going to change- but doing better, at least.

As an upshot, the place didn't look too damaged from the chaos that had followed in the Story Eater's wake.

"Hello."

A step inside was akin to stepping through a veil: Whatever she'd been cultivating through the months was finally palpable, and likely what helped minimize damage from the nightmares. It was something akin to an aura of relaxation and comfort, a warmth of a kind relative's home, perhaps.

...It also helped that the aroma of flaky butter pastry lingered, as well as the deep and dark sweetness of some sort of jammy berry that had been cooking for some time.

"Good morning! I've just finished but I'm an absolute mess of flour. Sit wherever you'd like." There was a clatter of ceramic from the kitchen, the hint of a black tail disappearing around a corner. The patting noises spoke of someone trying to rectify their powdery situation, a change of apron and a fight for something remotely presentable.

"Unei dear, go keep him company." A sparkle flitted from the ground level, following a trail. What emerged to pad over and rub against Akechi's ankles was a very glittery pink creature that seemed to mix a cat with a rabbit, multiple tails wiggling and long ears high.

"If she becomes a bother you can tell her off, by the way- she's friendly, if a bit of a needy type."

A touch awkwardly, he took one of the vacant chairs- and watched the strange creature approach with a raised eyebrow. A touch hesitantly, he bent down slightly, offering the back of his hand for the strange creature's inspection... Rather catlike in body language, but more like a rabbit in form. Weird. "Hello, there..."

Unei was strange even among her kind. She hadn't offered a nose to sniff at the offered back of hand, but rather began to sparkle more intensely as she arched her back and tried her best to make contact as she walked beneath the offered extremity. She even stretched onto her small paws to maximize her reach.

Madhuri had de-floured herself! Ya-ha! But she came bearing a silver tray with a set for coffee and some baked something-or-another. Strawberries, raspberries and blueberries dappled over a shiny shell, sitting in a shallow bed of some pillowy, pale golden filling.

"Alright! A jammy mixed berry tart on flaky puff for you, dear. The cashew cream has been a hit with folk that don't yearn for pastry cream or cheesecake filling." She was already pouring the coffee.

Unfortunately, the moment he found himself smiling faintly, reaching down to stroke the little creature behind one giant, floppy ear- was the moment Madhuri emerged from the kitchen. His image might never have recovered. "That looks... incredible, actually. Thank you." He sat up, taking the offered coffee. Black, two sugars, experimental sip... and apparently no complaint was found.

Really, he was a bundle of nerves, and the conversation had been something he'd been dreading all morning, unpleasant as it was- but there really was no dancing around it. "So. You had... questions, you said."

She settled in, and had made no remark on the state in which she'd seen him. Really, there was a time and a place to poke and tease, and right now wasn't it. Few minutes more? Maybe.

But she nodded, fixing her own cup of coffee.

"Yes. I had the... pleasure of meeting that strange man who wanted everyone's happiness. I dearly hope he wasn't real, but I've met similar ilk in my own world."

She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Only in my case, it was a perverted manifestation of a tribe's desperate desires given flesh. Who was that man?"

Akechi exhaled, and stared at the ceiling for a moment. "His name is... Takuto Maruki. He's a researcher from where I'm... from." He rubbed his face. "I think I've at least explained the basics of how my abilities work, and their source. He was... researching the same group of phenomena. I'm also given to understand that he was given a position as a high school counselor, though I was never close enough to him personally to actually know how or why that happened."

Fuck it, might as well just drop the shoe. "Also, he created me from the memories Ren Amamiya had formed of a boy named Goro Akechi, who he formed a bond with, in spite of their differences and being set at cross purposes. That 'Goro Akechi', as far as I know, died when he had a meltdown and tried to kill Ren and his friends to preserve a breathtakingly stupid revenge plan that he'd already sunk six years of his life into. They tried to talk him down and save him. It didn't work. The next bit I wasn't there for, but I'm given to understand that two things happened of note, one being that apparently the aforementioned merry band of dipshits regretted the way things turned out, and two being that the group of them took on and killed a malevolent god that had been orchestrating the whole affair, and feeding on humanity's collective desire for stability. That entity died, and this is largely conjecture on my part- but I'm reasonably certain it's correct, given the amount of corroborating evidence- Maruki somehow managed to inherit a great deal of that being's power, and used it towards the end of eliminating suffering from the world. That's about when I first woke up. I didn't realize it at the time, since he had a way of manipulating memories."

He took a drink. "Feel free to hit the 'eject' button on this conversation, by the way, at any time. I'm aware it isn't a pleasant one."

Safe Haven

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