Ivy Post-dream Log

[yep_stilldead]

Who: Ivy and people who live on a train (special guests Inigo and Raven)
When: The day after the dream event
Where: All over the train
What: Ivy is just really happy to not be trapped in a cave.
Warnings: None, for now.

The morning after that night of strange, overlapping dreams, Ivy is positively radiant. Almost entirely visible, she flies through the train, laughing and singing to herself. She stops occasionally to look out the window (even if there's not much to see) or to flag down strangers, shaking their hand and introducing herself, or at least favoring them with a cheerful how-do-you-do. It's a far cry from the weird, slightly-nervous ghost she was yesterday.

It's not like the dream she had was good. On the contrary, it was the worst thing she could have possibly imagined. However, waking up from that dream served onto to really drive home that her nightmare is over - she'll never see that cave again. This is real life, and it's a thousand times better than what came before it. So, she'll celebrate by reveling in the good cheer that being around people in a new environment affords her.

Private for Inigo
If she's more uncertain about anything, it's talking to this person. They barely know each other, but that only makes it harder to start up a conversation, after all the things she said in the dream.

Eventually she does track him down, though, and work up the courage to approach.

"Excuse me... Inigo, right? Are you busy?"

Private for Raven or people who look like Raven
On the other hand, this is a much easier encounter. After asking a few people to get a general description to go off of, her search for Raven begins.

To each Raven candidate: "Hello! Your name wouldn't happen to be Raven, would it?"

Comments

[yep_stilldead]

"...Yeah." Her radiant energy fades a bit at the memory of it. "It was just a coincidence, but... well, someone was bound to come by eventually, right?"

"It was an awful dream, because... what if this was the dream instead? There's always going to be a part of me that wonders if I'm just deluding myself, and I'm still floating in that cave."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita is not one to believe in coincidence - or, 'just coincidence', anyway.

"I can see why you'd want to avoid those thoughts."

Nita winces in sympathy.

"I wonder if I'm going to get stuck in visions myself... but having other people to talk to, to ground myself with, that helps a lot."

She holds out a hand - not certain if Ivy's solid enough for touch right now, or just enough to be seen - in reassurance.

"It'll help you too, I know it."

[yep_stilldead]

As it turns out, she is - Ivy reaches out and grabs Nita's hand with both of her own.

"Yes, precisely! There are so many people here, and I couldn't possibly make up this many people on my own! So, I'll believe that you're real, no matter what!"

[unfavorableinstigation]

A victory in the name of friendship! That smile on Nita's face grows at the realization.

"And I'll believe that you're here, too."

Though Nita chuckles, saying that.

"But you're definitely not a fairy, right? You don't need belief to exist, you already do!"

[yep_stilldead]

"I should say not!" The Fae are very dangerous where she's from. "If I were a fairy, I probably would've tried to kidnap some children by now."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita makes a wry face.

"True enough. I've heard way too many stories..."

And not many of them consistent, let alone lining up with her own encounter with the Sidhe/People of the Hill in Ireland.

"You're not like them, either."

[yep_stilldead]

"I'm not exactly an expert on the fair folk, but I'll take it as a compliment."

She glances back at Nita's cabin. "I heard that I'd better stay out of your cabin. One of your roommates loaded it with anti-ghost things."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita blinks.

"Iiii don't think that was this room? I might've heard that discussion, but I don't remember which rooms came up."

There were so many public discussions, all the time; it could get hard to keep track if you weren't taking explicit notes on things.

Or maybe that was just Nita's problem.

"Anyway, Naminé never mentioned dealing with ghosts. Peggy either."

She goes back to the door and looks in.

"Is there a sigil or something I should look for, maybe?"

[yep_stilldead]

"Really? Wait, was it... was it 4A, or...?"

Ivy looks nervous. This is a really bad thing to not be sure about, right?

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Let's see who's in that one; maybe I'll recognize the names..."

It's as good a plan as any, right?

[yep_stilldead]

Ivy floats over to the next room over. "Let's see... Rustling, Sizhui, Marcus, Naruto... do any of those sound like exorcist names?"

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita frowns, scrutinizing the names.

"I think I've seen Rustling around but haven't talked to him - Sizhui I've definitely seen, maybe it's him..."

She coughs.

"I remember Marcus from yesterday, and while I don't think he's human he doesn't seem to have ghost experience. And then there's Naruto."

She snorts suddenly, remembering the dream she'd ended up in with him. "He's a ninja, and he's got some sort of shapechange powers at the very least, but I don't think you have to worry about him."

[yep_stilldead]

Those powers seem important, but if Nita snorts about him, then he's probably not a problem.

"Well, until we sort this out, I suppose the smart thing to do is to avoid both rooms, until I know which one is booby-trapped."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita nods.

"We'll have to check in again with whoever told you the first time."

Unless someone actually in the room shows up.

"But once we get that cleared up, we'll make sure you can visit our room, okay?"

[yep_stilldead]

"Sure thing! The train isn't exactly the biggest place, but it would be nice to be able to be able to stop by if the fancy takes me."

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Though, speaking of..."

It's a somewhat-fainter memory now, but:

"You mentioned checking out the luggage car, the night we first met. Did you get to see that?"

They'd seen each other since, of course, but the interruption had been VERY rudely timed!

[yep_stilldead]

"Now that you mention it, I suppose we missed it. Is there anything interesting back there?"

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Lots of hiding places - Buttercup led me back there earlier. But, not really anything interesting in terms of things."

Aka no indication of how people ended up in the luggage.

Nita makes a 'come on' gesture. "Want to go back there together, then?"

[yep_stilldead]

"Of course! By all means, lead the way."

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita will set them off at an easy pace - they have a long way to go, almost as long as the journey to the engine had taken!

But they make their way, though Nita stops for a bit in the Dresser carriage, tapping her cheek in thought.

"Wish I knew where everything was being stored... You can't change your outfit, right, Ivy?"

[yep_stilldead]

She looks down at her dress. "More or less. I could put something else on over it, I suppose, but as soon as I stopped being solid it would fall right off.

[unfavorableinstigation]

"So it's not a matter of how you visualize yourself..."

Nita murmurs, almost to herself, before picking herself up and shaking her head.

"Later, though. Let's keep going!"

The luggage car smells of smoke once they clear the void-noise space linking the cars.

"Can you smell that?"

Genuine question, there.

[yep_stilldead]

Ivy nods. "Like smoke, right? I can smell, but I think I could smell things more clearly when I was alive."

She regards the luggage car, with its haphazard array of suitcases and trunks. "I think I was expecting something more magical to be here."

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Yep. Cigarettes."

Jessie had smoked a lot of them in this car.

But Ivy could smell, and Nita privately made a note of that to herself.

"It's not like we'll find that - what was it, the control car? Wherever it is people go when they end up home right away."

Nita had scrounged that tidbit up from discussion on the ICPs, but it hadn't been said directly to her.

"This is just where people end up when they come back..."

She fingers the SCA on her wrist. "I think one of the functions on this is supposed to bring you back here, too? When we're on a world."

[yep_stilldead]

"That's something else. Doesn't the train occasionally stop somewhere we can visit? Is there a schedule, or do we have to just wait?"

[unfavorableinstigation]

"I think the leaflet - or maybe someone on the Network? - went that there's some kind of stop, either a station or a world, twice a month."

And then there were events like that collision in the void, with whatever had put them to sleep...

"But we spend a lot more time traveling in the void than we do at anywhere, so there's still waiting."