voidtreckerexpress | Ivy Post-dream Log

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Ivy Post-dream Log

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?"

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"Hey, Ivy!"

It takes Nita a second to realize why the other (ghost) girl is so happy - and once it clicks, she could kick herself.

"Feeling better now, huh?"

Still, she's got a smile on her face, not in the least because her new friend's got one.

"I certainly am! And it's all thanks to you, my knight in shining armor."

Ivy peers around behind Nita at her cabin. "Is this your cabin? That makes us neighbors!"

Nita looks just a bit flustered at the praise, but she recovers quickly - or at least uses the backwards look into the cabin as an excuse!

"Yep! Must've noticed the nameplates on my way in, just never really sunk in since we're out-and-about most of the time."

Then, turning back partway, she pauses.

"... I'm glad you got out for real."

She remembers more than enough of the dream for THAT to stick out.

"...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."

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."

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!"

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!"

"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."

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."

"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."

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?"

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

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

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

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

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

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."

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."

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?"

"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."

"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!

The aftermath of the dreams mostly just feels strange to Inigo. He's seen so many things in all those dreams, both good and bad, that it feels hard to even know where to get started. He knows there are some people he ought to be talking to about their - or his own, in some cases - dreams, but it's difficult to figure out who to approach first.

.. except then that choice seems to be made for him. Because while he's deep in thought about what to do first, Ivy is suddenly right there. He didn't even notice her until she speaks up since he was so lost in his own mind.. So somehow he manages to let out a startled sound all over again, just like when they first met.

At least he has the decency to look ashamed over his reaction as he scrambles to properly reply to her instead.

"O-- Oh, yes! I mean, yes, Inigo is my name, not that I'm busy! My time is all yours for the moment if you need it!"

His overwrought reaction is, if anything, kind of reassuring. It reminds her of the stupid argument they had when they first met.

"All right, well... I reckon I was a bit of a terror when you talked to me in the cave. So, I'm sorry you had to see all that."

Raven, fortunately, isn't that hard to track down given that there are only so many places to be on the Train. She's also fairly distinctive in her cloak and cowl, even if she wears the train-uniform in Purple otherwise. She was actually in one of the normal cars, reading a book, and looked up with an eyebrow raise at the introduction.

She doesn't seem to be that startled to see a ghost, thankfully. "Yes?"

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

"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?"

"Great!" She puts her hands together in a satisfied gesture of a job well done. "Let's be friends."

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

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?"

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.

"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.

Edited 2020-02-27 15:09 (UTC)

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."

"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."

"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?"

"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."

Whatever he may have expected her to say, that sure wasn't it. It's not that he doesn't remember the dream he saw her in, but apparently it just didn't bother him at all. Not enough to think he'd actually get an apology for it.

It's obvious from his facial expression. Now he's no longer startled by her appearance, he just looks.. well, almost slightly confused.

"Why are you apologizing? I don't think you have done anything wrong. It seemed like an awful situation for you."

Edited 2020-02-27 17:59 (UTC)

"Oh, really?" That surprises her in turn. "I shouted at you! I demanded that you kill me, I was screaming at everyone for no reason... I can't imagine it was any fun having to put up with all that."

"Ah, well.."

Inigo rubs the back of his head awkwardly, but he smiles even in the face of what she's saying. It's probably better to just keep this whole thing light, right? Ivy doesn't seem too bothered by the dream anymore now, and he'd like to keep it that way. So..

"That sounds like my friend Noire on a good day, really." (That's not even too inaccurate..) "If anything, I just feel guilty that I wasn't able to do more for you, even though it was only a dream."

"Well, then! Let's just put the whole incident behind us. The fact of the matter is, I got out of that cave a long time ago."

A month is a pretty long time, if you think about it.

A month is not a long time compared to how long she's been in there!

But if there is anything Inigo doesn't want to do, it's making people recall painful memories. If Ivy wants to put it behind them, then that's all for the better. If she was so miserable in there, he doesn't want her to have to think about it.

"Right. And what does the past matter when there is so much to do in the present?"

Very hypocritical coming from someone who lingers on the past all the time, but sshh, no one has to know.

"If anything, we should go do something fun right now to make up for those strange dreams."

"Oh! Yes, absolutely." Letting go of the past to live(?) gloriously in the present is just what the doctor ordered. "What sort of fun things are there to do on a train?"

"You mean you haven't found the fun here yet?" He seems surprised by this, but not in a very genuine matter - but at least it seems to be on purpose. Like he's just exaggerating surprise to seem dramatic. A moment later it's already faded right back into a smile.

"Surely you have seen the game room, right? Can you play any of the games there? If not, I am sure we can find some way to make it work for you!"

"I've been wondering... how are those clunky hats supposed to be games, anyhow?"

She's never heard of VR.

"Oh, those things?"

Maybe it would have been easier to ask someone else. Inigo may have been here for a while now, but he still hasn't fully grown into some technology expert. There's just so much of it to all try to take in at once on this train..

"From what I have heard, you are supposed to put them on and they make it seem as if you are truly inside of the game. As if it were magic!"

"If it can do something like that, it really would have to be magic, wouldn't it?" Technology may be amazing, but there are limits. Right?

Right?

"...Now I want to give it a try."

Ivy, you have no idea how happy you're making him just by saying that.. Inigo was starting to feel like he was the only one out of touch with all this modern technology here. He nods along enthusiastically with what she says.

"Right, now you are speaking my language! I thought the exact same thing, but so many people here seem to treat these things as if they're normal!" Can you imagine? "However, they do seem to be safe, so you should give it if a try if it seems fun to you."

There is a blink, that eyebrow staying up. Raven wasn't honestly sure if anyone had been that direct before. She probably shouldn't have been surprised, but she was all the same. "Why?" Her habitual snark, but also letting some genuine puzzlement show through.

"Well, Mr. Stark said we'd get along, so that's why I sought you out." No point in beating around the bush. "Besides, isn't it more fun to have lots of friends?"

Raven just raised an eyebrow. "That sounds like something Mr. Stark would say." Raven wasn't opposed, but she was usually careful on choosing her friends. While it wasn't unlikely either that she would get along with this person, deciding to just be 'friends' off the bat was...not Raven's style usually?

"We should probably start with your name?"

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Ivy Post-dream Log

Let's say Ivy caught her just outside her cabin. XD Aka 4:B

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Raven is pretty distinctive

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[My apologies for getting back to this so late. We can hand-wave if need to?]

[No worries!]

Re: [No worries!]