[Event] Dreams of War and Fury

[Basilisk]

Seira and Gennadiya kept focusing on changing the dream to a more pleasant one, with Seira rolling around and turning the battlefield back into a meadow. Genna ran around, trailing her tails behind her to help with the transition. After a while, Genna also started creating picnic blankets and turning rocks into baskets of food,, or changing weapons into instruments, which their owners happily started to play. These effects, combined with the dancing, the river of alcohol, and something happening in the middle all added up to a cumulative effect. There was a shift that all of them could feel as the dream gestalt changed and locked into its new form. The trails of miasma vanished and there was no longer any need for the stuffed animals to keep changing the Gestalt dream. Batly, who had gone quiet towards the end, shook herself and looked at the two, then nodded. "Excellent work. Come to the center please, I have some things to tell everyone." she said, her tone more reserved.

Meanwhile, at the center, Apples lept forward to the sleeping person, with only a quick explanation of what he was doing. "Wait, what? Stop!" Batly said, reaching out to the stuffed spider, genuine worry and concern in her voice. Then Apples touched the sleeping Ellasin, though he didn't know who she was, and the nightmare just...vanished, taking its miasma with it. There was a moment of calm from the sleeper, then a bluish miasma started to calm from the sleeper instead. "That's...guilt. Why is that guilt?" she said, surprise clear in her voice, before the sleeper just disappeared from the gestalt. "She woke up. Did she reject the dream? I've never had that happen before." she said, her voice still shocked. She turned to Apples, surprise clear in her voice. "What did you do?" she asked, her tone surprised and curious.

Then Faith spoke and turned her attentions, and suspicions, to Batly. Willpower was an important thing in Emea, and all of these people had plenty to spare, but Faith's focus was something of a minor legend. There was a moment, where Faith and Apples could feel the same shift of Emea as Genna and Seira, when the Gestalt locked into its current form. Then there was a moment where Faith's desire to find the truth clashed with Batly's desire to obscure it. Neither of them were, by any stretch of the word, weak willed, but there was a moment when Batly seemed to crack like glass before she took a deep breath and her owl form recovered. "Your will is as impressive as they say." she muttered, before shaking her head. "Wait for the others to get here, and I'll explain." she said, her tone calm.

When Seira and Gennadiya arrived, Batly nodded. "All right, both the people I've served keep telling me that I need to trust people more, so I'll listen to them. But we're going to leave the Gestalt first. We just finished here and I'd rather not risking undoing all that work." she said, giving her wings a flap and sending them all out of the battlefield gestalt and into Faith's dreamscape. It was just like it was when Faith had left it, with clothes still needing to be folded on the bed. They were all, however, still stuffed animals. "Since you asked about Dreamscapes, Doctor Augustin, I've brought us to yours. As you can see, it's quite safe." she said, pointing out a window to where a shimmering shield surrounded Faith's Dreamscape. "It's called Sanctuary, a power from...well, Unity's Blessing now, but I got it from Jesnine before her and Kielik died to...create Unity." she said, her voice showing some anger at that last part.

Then she shook herself to clear her head and continued. "As for why you've never heard of Gestalts before, neither had I for...decades. Jesnine showed me, just before Emea broke and there were no dreams to traverse. To find them, you have to shift how you think of Emea, in a way that doesn't make much sense at first. Look for a city's Dreamscape rather than an individual person." she said, her tone calm. "As for why I need help...it's not for raw power or mastery of the dream, admittedly. I've been Dreamwalking since well before any of you were born, frankly." she said, her tone calm. "But I don't know this city very well. I've been in dreams of general battles before, so I knew what to work with there, but if there's more specific things, I'll have far more trouble." she said, before she let out a sigh. "And...Jesnine and I used to do this together. She's gone, but I didn't want to do this alone. So I thought to share what I was doing with other people." she said, her tone sincere.

As she spoke the last bit, the two Batly's that had been accompanying Seira and Genna popped like bubbles, revealing two of Jesnine's fairies that had been under the Batly illusion. Two more came out from under her wings. "Granted, I'm not entirely alone. After Jesnine's death, not all of her fairies wanted to go to Unity. Too much Kielik in that one. So some of them came to me, because they knew me. They're a lot of help." she said, a genuine smile in her voice as she looked at the fairies.

!

Message from: Basilisk

DISCLAIMER: Batly's therapy is magic dream therapy and is, quite intentionally, neither analogous nor representative of any IRL therapy techniques. Do not equate it to any IRL therapy methods or presume it will have any effect IRL. My next post will be Saturday the 19th of November. Please get your post in by midnight on Friday the 18th, and let me know if you need an extension as I need to post early in the day. For this post, you can try to refine your dream treatments or ignore Batly and go see what's roaring in the middle of the battlefield. Big thanks to Pigs for the fuzzy snakes template! Hope you're all having fun!

[Seira Shiryu]

There was a moment when Seira could feel something...shift. When she felt it, Seira paused in what she had been doing, and concentrated on the feeling. It definitely felt as though something had changed somehow. The trails of miasma vanished. Seira got the feeling that the gestalt dream had locked itself into the form that they were trying to create for it, but Seira wasn't sure if that was what had really happened, or if her hope of just that was coloring what she was feeling.

That all changed when Batly complimented their work. Seira felt a thrill of accomplishment at what she had helped to do. She loved to help others, and this seemed like a good way to do just that. It made her wonder if it was possible for her to do something like this on a smaller scale by herself. Helping to turn a nightmare of a single dreamer into a good dream rather than a gestalt dream like this, perhaps. And if that was something she could do, or learn how to do, would it help to treat the trauma that had caused the nightmare as this was supposed to be doing?

Seira was distracted from her thoughts when Batly told them to come to the center. The stuffed bat's voice was much more reserved than it had previously had been, and Seira wondered what had happened to change Batly's mood. Nothing she could see seemed like it might be the cause for the change. Maybe something had happened to one of the other Batlys?

It seemed likely that she would only find out if she did as Batly asked, so Seira hurriedly moved in the directing the other Batly had gone previously. After a while, she found one of the Batlys standing with Faith and Apples. That Batly flapped her wings and all of a sudden the world changed around them. Seira found herself in a bedroom with a single bed. Freshly laundered clothes sat on the bed, some of which still needed to be folded.

Batly began to speak, and her words told Seira that they were now in Faith's Dreamscape. Seira felt a bit uncomfortable about that because it had been Batly's actions that had brought them all there, and not Faith's invitation. She wasn't sure how Faith felt about them all invading her dream like this. But at the same time, she herself had done nothing to cause the situation. So while she was a bit uncomfortable and concerned that Faith might not like the invasion, there was nothing to be done for it.

Batly explained that she needed them more because she didn't know Rharne very well and therefore didn't know the specifics of the gestalt dreams that they were trying to fix than because she couldn't do it on her own. That made sense to Seira given that while she didn't know how skilled the others were at dreamwalking, she herself was very inexperienced at it. When it came to skill, there wasn't much that she would be able to do that someone like Batly could not.

It was also a relief to know that their own Dreamscapes were safe. Seira hadn't even thought to worry about that until Batly reassured them that it wasn't an issue, but it was good to know all the same. Another thing that Batly told them involved gestalt dreams themselves. Seira learned that finding a gestalt dream meant that you had to look for a city's Dreamscape rather than an individual person's Dreamscape. Batly told them that it required a shift in how you thought about Emea, and that it wouldn't make sense at first. It certainly didn't make any sense to Seira. She couldn't really grasp the idea of a city dreaming rather than a person. And she couldn't even begin to think of how one might look for something like that. All the same, she filed the information away for later. It would be good to know how to find a gestalt dream if she ever needed to do so when she knew enough about dreamwalking to actually be able to do something like that.

Two of the Batlys popped like bubbles and in their place appeared two fairies. As Seira watched, two more appeared from under Batly's wings. Batly told them that they were Jesnine's fairies and that they came to her when Jesnine died. It made Seira wonder who Batly really was if she was friends with someone like Jesnine. Was Batly an Immortal? Or someone who had been marked by Jesnine? It seemed to Seira that Batly must be someone important, but she didn't ask. Instead, she watched the fairies curiously.

[Gennadiya Lyosha]

. . . . Gennadiya Lyosha . . . .

Dreams of War and Fury
90th of Zi'da

The foxy Genna frolicked around meadow working to make the changes. It was a good thing this was a dream as the physical Genna would have been tired a lot sooner then the dream version of her. As she changed another rock into a basket she felt world around them shift. It was a bit odd of an experienced, but it gave her enough reasons to pause that she noticed that the shift seemed to be universal. The dreams involved had been convinced and the world shifted. The crowd of dreamers seemed to have accepted the suggestions and were taking it from there.

One of the Batelys instructed them that they were successful and that come to the center. The fox walked towards the center and came to stand by Faith. There did seem to be some contention in the air, but Genna had to admit that she could have been wrong as she didn’t really have experiences reading the body language of stuffed animals. Her long friendship with Faith did suggest something was off but Genna could really say what.

She didn’t have to wait long. Faith had expressed concerns with dreamscapes, which frankly Genna had no understanding of so she was trying to follow along the conversation. She did follow that this gestalts or any at all were something that Faith didn’t know about. Dreamscapes appeared to be and individual thing and now they had been taken to Faith’s. Genna really didn’t understand what a dreamscape was and what it meant, but Genna knew Faith well enough to know that, while friendly and welcoming, one didn’t intrude into her home with out an invite, if this was apart of Faith then she wouldn’t be happy with the sudden visit. Genna was of a similar nature. Her house was open but after you were invited in.

Genna listened, and she actually could see what Batly was saying on several points. Communities she knew were a very real thing, and had a collective memory that was abstract, so she could see the possibility of a community dream. She also could understand the need for company. Her tails flicked in irritation though. This creature spent way to much time in dreams and not enough in reality.

“While I can understand no wanting to be alone, and can agree that doing something together it better.” She said her voice crisp and snappish. “I am also glad you are trusting us with this information.” She gave Bately her stern look. “I am going to return that honesty. Ask for the help. Kidnapping people to help, even for a good cause is wrong. It makes them distrustful of you, wary and angry. If you had asked me specifically, and explained it all before bringing me here. I would have agreed to help. I can’t speak for the others, but I know I would have felt a lot better about this.” She looked at the bat. “If you care I would be willing to help you learn some of rules of polite society. Following them will help you in the future as you seek to help other places,” Genna looked at her kindly. “It will also help you make and keep new friends.” She flopped her tail on the ground.

[Woe]

Apples pounced on the mage in the middle of the battlefield, but as soon as he imparted fearlessness to her, something happened. He saw that rather than terror, which had been dispelled and the Nightmare with it, she was feeling guilty now. This was obviously beyond the sophistication and order of a dream construct to convey, at least in Woe's experience. He wondered who this woman was, and if she was the source of the anomaly they were experiencing in Rharne's shared dream.

"Strange..." He said, before turning to Batly to respond to her question, "I did just as I said. I made her fearless, so as to dispel the Nightmare. I imagine you didn't want a Nightmare threatening our lives or that of anyone else sharing this dream. So I used Kuvarakh's power to destroy her fear temporarily. That usually has the effect of removing any Nightmare that enters the dream. As Seira will attest?" Apples turned to Seira as the girl arrived in her stuffed cat-form in the dream. "Isn't that right Seira?"

Apples had questions of his own, but before he could ask any of them, they were unceremoniously whisked away and brought to what Batly explained was Professor Augustin's dreamscape.

Apples had mixed feelings about this. The last time he'd arrived unannounced to a space belonging to Faith, he'd been chewed up and spit out in a manner of speaking. He had no wish to have the same happen here. So he was very careful about how he conducted himself. All the same, he did still have questions.

Then Batly went on to explain her loneliness in the absence of Jesine, and how she just wanted others to work with. "Well, I'm a master dreamwalker, so you happened to pick up one of the few who might help with this sort of thing.... I don't know about the others, though, but Professor Augustin I imagine is a woman of many talents. I didn't know she was also an accomplished dreamwalker. And Seira is my student, haven't only learned recently to lucid dream..."

"That said, I'm sorry for your loss, of Jesine that is. It's many times as sad when an otherwise undying being is brought to a premature end." Apples reached out a spindly fluffy limb and patted Batly on the back, as if in comfort.

He whispered to Batly, when he was close enough, "By the way,

where are we?"

[Basilisk]

Apples explanation of how he had banished the woman's fears got a surprised look from Batly. "I...didn't know that Kuvarakh's Effigy could do that." she said, her tone surprised, but there was a subdued thoughtfulness to it. "That would work along those lines here, wouldn't it. It wouldn't have occurred to me to try it, Dragons are such a new thing that their effects in Idalos proper aren't well known. I don't even know that there's any knowledge of their effects in or on Emea." she said, almost muttering to herself in thought. It was pretty clear that she was thinking of how to Effigy could be used in dreams going forward.

Batly waited for the others to react to what she said, and it was Gennadiya who spoke up first. The healer-fox reprimanded the bat for kidnapping, which got her a curious look from Batly, then offered to help her learn polite society, which had Batly looking more than a little embarrassed. Then Apples spoke and she smiled slightly when he said that she had, if only accidentally, picked up people who were qualified for the kind of work she was doing. She gave a sad nod at his condolences as well, followed by a curious look when he asked his final question. That was immediately followed by her eyes widening slightly. "Oh! Oh, no. I'm sorry. We're leaving now!" she said, clapping her wings again and, with a bit more force than usual, they were all ejected. This time, they were in Emea proper, a mass of formless, shifting expanses.

Once they were all ejected, still stuffed animals except for the fairies, Batly gave a little half bow to Faith. "I'm very sorry, I'm used to having to provide irrefutable proof when challenged on things. I'm not, if I'm being frank, used to dealing with trustworthy or honest people. I can show you how to lock the door again, should you wish." she said, before straightening out and turning to Gennadiya. "You're not wrong, I am...unused to dealing with polite society, though I think you misunderstand why. I've known, in Idalos or Emea, hundreds of thousands of people. With the exception of Jesnine and a few of our mutual friends, I could not trust any of them. When spying on your neighbors and systematically abusing anyone thought of as "lesser" is the norm, trust is impossible. Even those who were well intentioned were raised in an environment that glorified cruelty and venerated fear." she said, her tone somber, even grim.

"As to the kidnapping, that I refute. I called, and was insistent, yes. But if any of you had refused, I would not have brought you here." she said, there was an undernote there, as if she was pained by the accusation, but somehow considered it understandable. "But I would appreciate the help, if you still want to extend the offer. I...want to be better, now that I don't have to pretend to be a villain just to keep myself alive." she said, her tone almost hopeful. Then she turned to Woe. "I...won't elaborate on where we were. That's not for me. As for the woman in the Gestalt, I have no idea. I've never met her before, and I did not enter her dreamscape to identify her. She could be, quite frankly, anyone." she said, before shaking her head. "Nor am I going to pursue her identity. Unless someone knows and allows me into their dreamscape, I don't enter specific dreamscapes for therapeutic purposes." she said, her tone firm.

After that she turned to Seira and Faith. "You have both been silent. I'll answer any questions you have." she said, her tone nervous.

!

Message from: Basilisk

DISCLAIMER: Batly's therapy is magic dream therapy and is, quite intentionally, neither analogous nor representative of any IRL therapy techniques. Do not equate it to any IRL therapy methods or presume it will have any effect IRL. My next post will be Sunday the 11th of December. Please get your post in by midnight on Saturday the 10th, and let me know if you need an extension as I need to post early in the day. For this post, you can ask Batly any questions you want. Big thanks to Pigs for the fuzzy snakes template! Hope you're all having fun!

[Seira Shiryu]

Batly took them out of Faith's dreamscape quickly, and the place that she brought them to was...strange. Very, very strange, in fact. It wasn't a place as Seira understood it. There was no room, or landscape. No building, or well...anything, really. Instead, there was nothing but a formless, shifting mass that stretched out as far as the eye could see. It was a very startling sight, and it made Seira slightly uneasy as she tried to make sense of it. It wasn't nothingness...but at the same time, it wasn't anything either. Or nothing that she could recognize at least. There were no identifiable objects or anything that she could focus on. She couldn't see anything threatening in the shifting expanses, but it was very unsettling to be unable to make any sense of what her eyes were telling her. There were no landmarks, nothing she could make out of the formless mass that surrounded her. And she couldn't help but try to compensate by using her other senses in an attempt to get information about the place she found herself in. She couldn't touch anything because there wasn't anything to touch. So she tried to see whether she felt colder or warmer than she had when in Faith's dreamscape or the gestalt dream. She also tried to listen for any sound she might hear coming from the shifting expanses. Finally, she breathed deeply to see if she could smell anything that might be useful.

Seira listened while Batly apologized for bringing everyone to Faith's dreamscape, and explained why she did. It gave her something else to focus on, and as such it brought a very welcome distraction. Listening to what Batly told them was a welcome distraction, but hearing what she had to say was not. Seira found that she could very much relate to not being able to trust anyone around her. She and Seri had lived that way when they were on their own in Rynmere. She didn't pity Batly for her circumstances, but she could all too easily understand and relate to them.

The other thing that Seira learned was a confirmation that what she was hoping for was true; that it was possible to enter individual dreamscapes for therapeutic purposes as well as gestalt dreams. Seira was very interested in being able to help people that way. She also liked the idea of only entering someone's dreamscape for the purpose of trying to heal them if she had permission to do so. Anything else felt like a severe breach of privacy.

When Batly asked if she or Faith had any questions, Seira hesitated for a trill. She suspected that the others had a lot more experience with dreamwalking that she did since they seemed to know exactly what they should do, and seemed confident that what they attempted would work. At the very least, she knew that Apples had a lot more experience than she did since he was her dreamwalking teacher. Seira didn't want to ask a question that might sound stupid to the others, but even if she tried to focus on other things, she couldn't quite forget about that formless, shifting expanse that surrounded them.

"It's hard to learn how to trust people after living in circumstances where trust is impossible. But I hope that you are able to do so, and I hope you can make some more friends that you can trust." Seira said politely.

"As for questions, Apples is right. I really don't know much about dreamwalking yet. And I've never been out in...this before." she said as she gestured at the shifting expanse that surrounded them.

She tried not to imagine that there was someone out there watching them, hidden in the formless, shifting expanse. Would they ever know if someone...or something was watching them?

"I understand that this is Emea, but is it always like this if you aren't in a dreamscape? How do you find anything if it is?" she asked.

[Woe]

“He is the shadow of courage. His is the province of fear and also courage, among other things. A big scary monster that preys upon the wicked.” Apples said, somewhat proudly. He wasn’t much of one to brag in the waking world, but here he felt very proud of it.

But soon enough, they were transported to Emea proper. Apples looked around, testing the surrounding landscape, which often enough shifted and warped with every little touch.

Batly seemed very much on the defensive, as accusations of kidnapping were levied. Apples had to take exception to that, as he’d felt the call and answered. Although he hadn’t come with full expectation of what it would mean, he didn’t feel duped or anything of the sort.

He felt compelled to defend Batly! “I’ve made breaches of etiquette far worse than inviting people from afar to join in a Dreamscape. Although we may not have been so well informed upon receiving the call, we all surely answered it did we not? I want to help still, and I want to learn what Batly has to teach us about this Gestalt dream phenomenon.”

Apples gave it some thought, and brought one of his legs to his furry fang, “For instance, how has the Dream world and Emea changed in the wake of its fall in 719? We all remember those events, surely, as well as the shared vision of what occurred. How is it we’re able to travel into the expanses of Emea here, without leaving our bodies behind once more, as was required just a few arcs ago? Or was that a temporary change?”

Apples hoped he wasn’t poking too many holes or introducing too much uncertainty to the situation. Or that he was overthinking. However, he smiled at Batly, “I understand entirely where you’re coming from, Batly. You sent out a beacon that several of us answered. We could be anyone, anyone at all, and not necessarily well-intentioned people. You took a leap of faith to see beyond your fear, and that took courage.”

He floated up to her, and patted her on the furry wing, by way of encouragement, imparting the sense of courage in her as well. It’d been about five bits since he’d done the same to the woman in the dream, and so he was able to do the same for Batly now.

[Gennadiya Lyosha]

. . . . Gennadiya Lyosha . . . .

Dreams of War and Fury
90th of Zi'da

Gennadiya sat in her fox form the nine tails slowly swaying behind her as she listened to Batly and the others as they talked about what had happened and what was continuing to go on. Genna really wasn’t much aware about Dreamwalking and what was going on but she was picking up on the basics. The Fox listened as Batly acknowledged part of the point Genna made or disagreed with her points. Genna looked over at Apples as he was concern about this weird person who had thrown a wrench in the works of the last community dream.

This dream world seemed to be a place that was deception in some ways. There own shifting of forms hinted at that and the changes they had made. Genna found it a bit odd as she was very much a practical person who focuses on the basics. She began to feel that she needed to understand the world better.

The fox tilted her head and looked at the stuffed bat. She blinked and then said. “I am willing to help resolve this and other issues, and even willing to learn more about dreamwalking.” Genna looked over at Faith and said. “After this are you willing to teach me more about Dream walking.” She looked back at Batly. “I am also willing to help in the future. It sounds like something good to do, and it is true that you need to find people you can trust, but you have found a few and possible can find more.”

Genna waited to see if there way another area they needed to help with, and to listen to the explanation about changes. The young woman was aware that changes had occurred to the Emea, but it really wasn’t a area she studied a lot.

[Faith Augustin]

......T'wooooooooooo......

Simply appearing in her Dreamscape was not something Faith had been prepared for and she was momentarily taken aback to the point of speechless. The fairies popping up didn't surprise Faith at that point, because she was coming to the conclusion that Batly really wasn't of any world other than Emea. Reality, and the nuances of it, seemed largely lost on Batly. This concerned Faith greatly, because there was so much she was learning about for the first time and what she didn't know was what the impact of these things would be outside Emea.

Seira said nothing, which struck Faith as strange but was what it was. Genna then spoke to Batly and she was honest and forthright. Faith turned and smiled at her pink and fluffy friend. The spider spoke of Kuvarakh's power and that caused Faith a momentary pause. There were very few people with dragon effigies, she knew, and she'd heard of only one with that of Kuvarakh. However, Batly then decided that they were exiting her dreamscape and they did so into a formless area of Emea. Batly then spoke, first apologising and then explaining why she had done what she had. Batly spoke of her life, then, explaining where she had come from and Faith frowned slightly.

"What place is it that you speak of?" she asked. That this was a place on Idalos - not in Emea - concerned Faith and she wanted to know for sure that she understood exactly what Batly was saying. Whether they had been kidnapped or not was not, to Faith's mind, what was important. What was important was the lack of clarity - which it seemed was felt by both sides here. "I would say," she said in response to Apples' words, "That Emea keeps changing and this is an interesting turn. At least, if we get hungry, we might have a Ship's Biscuit? Don't you think?" If he was Woe - the only person she knew who had the effigy he did - then he would know and recognise the reference.

But either way, Faith decided that she'd had enough of this messing around. First, she concentrated on herself, on her form. She had no wish nor need to hide who she was and so she concentrated and changed her shape back to who she was. "Forgive me, but I have no wish to seem to be anyone other than who I am. I don't hide, I never have.". She nodded her head to Genna and she smiled. "Yes. Definitely. I'd say," she said, taking in both Genna and Seira with her glance, "That a quick lesson is in order. You are lucid, walking in this dream place. You've just been in my dreamscape, the representation of my unconscious and conscious mind. Every secret I hold is in that place, every desire and shame and everything in between. It is not just my memories - though it is them - it is my personality, my thoughts, my wants and wishes." She smiled softly. "The first thing to do, I would suggest, is to learn tips for making yourself lucid in dreams. I used to look at my hands a lot during the day and every time I looked at my hand I thought to myself 'I'm awake'. Then, when in a dream, if it happened that I looked at my hand, it triggered that memory and I became lucid. It gets easier, the more you do it. Then, explore your own Dreamscape. Walk in it and doing so will help you understand yourself - and the dreaming."

OOC: So sorry for delays <3

She looked at Seira then, specifically "It's about will. If I wished to visit your dreamscape now, I would will it - imagine it - and that would take me there. It's like reaching out a hand to pick up a glass," she explained. She understood that Seira was asking Batly, but Faith really wasn't sure how "in reality" Batly was, so she answered from the point of view of a mortal soul. "It starts with your brain telling your hand to move. Once the decision is made, it's automatic and you no longer have to think about it." It was, quite simply, that. Feel it, believe it, it would happen. Such was her experience with Dreamwalking, anyhow.

"I'm happy to help. But we need to know everything, clearly and no surprises. No running about and bouncing off and explaining why after the fact," she said. "Because to help, I need to be able to trust you. I hope that we can build that trust of each other starting from this point."

If it came, as always, Faith's trust would be given based on actions and, so far, Batly seemed well-intentioned and largely clueless but she had a tendency to act first, explain later that Faith really really did not appreciate.

[Basilisk]

Batly looked at Seira as she asked about Emea, then nodded at her. "This part of Emea is the space between dreamscapes. Navigating it is...tricky. Dangerous even, if you don't know what you're doing. You don't navigate by traditional means, and how each person navigates Emea is unique to them. For me, if I know my starting point and my destination, I can create a pathway through Emea. Most, however, choose not to travel through the space between dreams. Jesnine taught me how so that I could more effectively hide in Emea." she said, her tone cheerful.

She gave Apples a smile when he described Kuvarakh. "I know the Shadow of Courage quite well, but I have not yet attempted to wield his Effigy here in Emea. I shall have to remedy this." she said thoughtfully. She gave him another smile as he defended her, though she did spread her wings quite self-deprecatingly. "Thank you, Apples, but I could well have been more clear about what everything entailed." she said, her tone rueful. When he brought up the breaking of Emea, Batly nodded again. "The fall of Emea appears to have been temporary, though I could not say how it was repaired. Unity is...less forthcoming than Jesnine or even Kielik were, and that's when they're even able to be found." she said, this time with a notable mix of bitterness and sadness in her voice. She clearly was not nearly as fond of Unity as she was Jesnine.

"As to what's different about Emea since it reformed, at the time little enough. There's been more changes lately, though, since the Ruin's Dawn incident and the awakening of the Dragons. Whatever that lunatic Kata did, it reverberated through Emea as well. There's parts of it that we just can't access anymore, the ones that aren't connected to dreams. The whole place is safer because of it, but it is very weird." she said, with a slight shrug at the end. "I'll admit though, that I haven't particularly tried to probe the deeper mysteries of Emea outside what's related to my own work. I'm a doctor, not an explorer."

Batly scratched her head when Apples said that she'd taken a leap of faith when it came to who she'd invited to help her. "I...didn't pick you all at random. All four of you have connections to the events that inspired the gestalt dreams here in Rharne, and you exist in the populaces awareness to a greater or lesser extent, in positive connotations. You four are known, in some capacity to Rharne as a whole, and that's how I connected to you all through the dreamscape." she said, her tone slightly confused, as if she didn't understand why Apples thought she would have picked them without having at least some idea who they were, though she did smile when he patted her wing and imparted courage to her. "Thank you." she said, knowing what he'd done.

Genna said she'd help out and told Batly that she could trust the four of them, and Batly nodded. Then Faith returned to her own shape, something she found was actually remarkably easy to do, and gave a quick lesson on basic Dreamwalking principles and how to first become Lucid in the dream of ones own will. Batly stayed quiet through the lesson, since she knew all of this, but also knew that Faith was a better teacher than she was. When Faith turned to her, though, Batly gave a slow nod. "Yes, if I'm going to expect you to trust me, I should do the same. Once you know who I am, you'll know why trust doesn't come naturally to me." she said, before taking a deep breath.

Then Batly started to change form, taking a mortal form. The first form she took was a rather drab looking young woman, one that appeared to be human. Faith would recognize it has having been one of the guests in attendance during Jesnine and Kielik's funeral, and she had indeed been in Jesnine section, but had been somewhat isolated from the others. She morphed from that to another form, a woman with bubbles for hair, the one that had shown up in the Rharnian prison with Kuvarakh. Then she took one final form, a formally dressed Naer with lilac colored hair. "This is who I am in reality. Lord Kuvarakh called me "Doctor Bubbles" after the appearance I take when travelling with Jesnine or using Dreamwalking in Idalos proper. But outside of that...my name is Sanja." she said, her expression rather sad.

"Before the death of Audrae and the fall of Augiery, I was part of Augiery's ruling body, the Wicked Council, as the Vice of Health and Wellness." she said, her tone showing no small amount of annoyance with the melodramatic naming structure employed by Augiery. "Accordingly, I was also one of Audrae's Champions, though I was also the greatest traitor in Augiery's history." she said, before smiling slightly. "Jesnine and her followers were not welcome, and care for the cities slaves was considered foolish at best. I did both. Jesnine had been my teacher and friend long before I came to Audrae's attention, and she taught me how to hide my actions from Audrae. I could not publicly treat the many slaves of the city without a resistance that I could not overcome alone, so I developed my dream healing techniques to treat them without being observed." she said.

Anyone using an ability that let them tell when someone was lying would be able to tell that Sanja was telling the complete truth. "It was just the slaves I tried to help, though they had the worst of it. Generation after generation of my people, raised to cruelty and malice as the natural way of life. I tried to curb this as well, both as the Vice of Welfare and as Doctor Bubbles." she said, a sorrow in her voice. "After Audrae died, Kuvarakh came to Augiery, and finally, its slaves were freed, and my people were able to see that a better way existed, even for shadows. But...not all of us wanted to stay in Augiery. Some of the Vices went rogue and escaped, some were allowed to leave of their own accord, some stayed behind, and I...came to Rharne. To be able to heal without having to hide, to find a place that those of my people that want live without the memory of Audrae and the Augiery that was haunting their every step.

When she was done, Sanja sighed. "So that's who I am. Hardly a harmless stuffed bat, though that's the form I take for my treatments. Knowing who I am, do you still trust me?" she asked, and there was a note in her voice. She was actually, even through the boost that Apples had given her, afraid.

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Message from: Basilisk

DISCLAIMER: Batly's therapy is magic dream therapy and is, quite intentionally, neither analogous nor representative of any IRL therapy techniques. Do not equate it to any IRL therapy methods or presume it will have any effect IRL. My next post will be Sunday the 11th of December. Please get your post in by midnight on Saturday the 10th, and let me know if you need an extension as I need to post early in the day. For this post, you can ask Batly any questions you want. Big thanks to Pigs for the fuzzy snakes template! Hope you're all having fun!