idolpro | Amaranth: A Dream

Entry tags:

!ideal world

Amaranth: A Dream

Once, there was a maiden...

...whose battles called her far from home.
She slew the thing she feared most, and conquered the land that feared her.
As she fought, far away, she knew her children needed guidance.
She knew they faced tyrants.
She knew they faced fear.
In her homeland, things were broken.
So, she held up her hand before the sun, and cast a shadow on the world, and drowned the troubles of her home in darkness.

"Survival's a long reach," she said.

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[ Startles, looking back at her again. ]

What, you know what's going on here?

[ ...

... ] This world is beautiful, isn't it.

...

Are you happy?

[ She considers this, smile still soft; turns to look once more at that overlapping set of scenes, as if checking. ]

Everyone I protect is here, safe and loved. Everyone I would fight alongside as well, all of us united in purpose.

Were we not here together, you and I, we would be on the battlefield. This land is worth fighting for, and so we fight for it, matching our beliefs with our actions. And there, I do not fail you.

[ she-- scowls, hurt. ]

... yeah, if only.

Just wake up already and make it better for real.

Wake up?

I am awake, finally. Isn't it a relief to finally know that none of it was real? That impossible city, full of impossible machines, magic that bent space and time? No death to be found except through spiritual annihilation, but endless pain. And somehow, even if we told no one, it always knew exactly what inner hurts we hid, and how to torture us with them?

[ a touch softer ] It all felt so real...

But that's the logic of nightmares, Requiem.
...Even though they can haunt us.

If it's a nightmare we shared, then I want to talk about it. I don't want our dream of that world to keep us from happiness in this one.

This land has strange magic too, but it's alright: if you think about it, and compare them, it's obvious which one is real.

[ and-- it snaps, something in her that she definitely, definitely didn't want to show. if amaranth was happy she deserved to stay happy but this--

fur rapidly covers her arms and her teeth grow into wicked fangs. her form not growing taller but her arms and hands-- paws, claws-- growing thickly muscular. she swiftly lunges, to try to wrap a paw around Amaranth's neck and pin her down-- hopefully she can at least catch her off guard enough for that, and force her to listen: ]

No! I know what's real! I was willing to let you-- stay, and be happy, and do whatever you want, but you're just going to pretend that was all a dream? That I'm a dream?! You're just gonna say all that, and stay here and pretend to be happy while I have to go back to that nightmare, by myself?! That's bulldonk! I'm not even from here! I'm from Ooo! I'm Marceline the Vampire Queen! I've lived for a thousand years, I watched war destroy everything I love and everything I had, and you think it's as simple as just-- saying it doesn't exist anymore? You think this--

[ she gestures widely to the fields with her other paw, ]

-- is so easily in reach for you, or any of us?! You know this ain't real! Why ELSE would you care about failing me?!

[ Just moments before, Shrike had interrupted Amaranth to show her something, and now the rice around you is withering.

She's already half-distracted; not a chance she's prepared to dodge.

And intuitively, you know—
On your forehead, there is now a solid circle of glowing silver. ]

[ ...Not a chance she's prepared to dodge, and you hit her full-force.
Amaranth is thrown to the ground, into the now-wilting rice and drying dirt, your claws pinning her down by the throat. Her reaction is swift, trying to shift her hips to throw you off— ]

I know that war—

[ —when her eyes go to your forehead, and that glowing silver circle. And her words die in her throat.

She is crying. ]

[ —oh

she... puts the seed back in her pocket, for now, and sort of... crouches down. ]

Would you forget about how we learned of the Chosen of Luna? The lessons we have wrenched from the maw of tragedy together?

You never let me hide, Amaranth.

[ ... oh

awkwardly-- no, more like ashamed-- releasing her grip and pulling back a bit, claws retracting entirely. she didn't think she was gonna cry ]

[ All of you see something together:

The earth aspect, weakened by his wounds, is sent flying by the Anathema’s next blow, leaving the fan-wielding water aspect dangerously open. You let out a shout that seems to echo with the cries of an army, though, and the beast hesitates, seemingly held in place by sudden awe or fear. The pause is just long enough: the next moment, three leafy arrows sprout from the Anathema’s left eye, each piercing deeper than the last.

As the monster is defeated, its form recedes back to that of a man—barely more than a youth—with claws like a cat's, arrows still lodged in his eye. You sigh heavily, wipe the blood and sweat from your brow, and remind yourself that this was the better outcome by far than seeing innocent mortals devoured. The dead man’s crimson hair suggests that he hails from somewhere in the southern deserts: he has died so very far from home.

Amaranth's expression is pained, her teeth gritted: no, she hasn't forgotten. ]

....Of course. [ Her voice is quiet. ] Creation has never been this just.

I'm sorry.

...it really hasn't. Not at all, nor kind to those who sought it. No matter how much we wish it.

[ MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

kind of frozen, at that, shifting to grip her own arms, claws digging harshly into the fur.

she's silent, though, very clearly wigged the FUCK out. ]

[ All the rice in the field turns to ash. And then, beneath your feet, the earth shudders and cracks with a sound like a wail.

There's something in there, small but glowing red. ]

...Amaranth.

I think... you know where you need to be right now. And it's not here.

...I'm sorry.

[ And she disappears. Now it's just the two of you, and ruined fields as far as the eye can see. ]

[ Stares at the place where she disappeared, then out over the fields, but-- slowly gets up, still tightly holding her arms around herself. ]

Even in her dreams I'm a freakin' monster. What a joke.

[ --but. she'll start walking back, shoulders hunched, without turning to Shrike again. ]

I'm quite certain that's not what it meant to her, but—

[ glancing out over the once-beautiful fields—

this is all feeling very very bad. ]

...I think the dream's almost over, anyway.

[ whips around again, gesturing widely with her claws. ]

Good! Then I can make sure she never has to worry about putting me down like a rabid dog or somethin'!

...that memory she associates with a great injustice that she was a party to, so—I think she'd like to not worry about that, too.

But, ah... I suppose I'll look for where she went.

[ doesn't seem at all convinced-- she grimaces slightly, but lets Shrike go, remaining where she is for a long moment before once again hugging herself with her clawed paws.

-- no, normal arms. She changes back to normal, shoulders hunched, and slowly follows after Shrike. ]

[ There she is. ]

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Amaranth: A Dream

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