Oh, call me Yoru, I guess, but it's irrelevant. I don't truly "exist", after all. I'm just a few traces left within Sora's soul, little more than a memory.
[She doesn't even wait anymore for a handshake, taking her hand away and stepping backwards, smiling at Harley all the time]
It's funny I'm here. Guess that means I really left a mark on poor Sora. I'm her trauma, I guess? Even a thing like her can have her psyche scarred irreparably.
[She extends an index finger and waves it around, showing the realm around Harley and her]
Now listen, this is the Otherworld, where Daemons live. I created this little imitation of it to...guide you, I guess, to a couple ugly truths about Sora. So try not to stray too far! We don't want you to somehow die in here.
[Can Harley truly die? Probably not. It's a dream, after all. She steps onto the emptiness, bricks of clay coming to form a winding pathway while she walks, and she beckons Harley to follow while they chat]
Did you understand that tiny show I modelled at the office? Did you catch what it tried to tell you?
If Sora and I ever talk face to face I have to say that to her.
[Just stealing Harley's comment, apparently. Yoru stands in front of three pillars]
But yeah, Sora Jingu is dead. The real Sora. The impostor you know is what's known as a Monark -- an embodiment of a human sin, usually making pacts with humans who want power. Now, Harley, look.
[Yoru steps off the edge, floating in the air with ease, and walks around the pillars]
Make a guess! What sin does that thing embody?
The left pillar is for Pride. The center pillar is for Greed. The right pillar is for Lust.
Go on! Choose wisely!
[She looks at Harley expectantly, lowering the pillars so they're at Harley's level, so she can step onto her answer]
[With a wave, a new pillar appears. It's noticeably...spikier. Instead of a flat surface the rock that forms it is made of little spires, meant to make standing on that platform really uncomfortable, even painful if you were to trip and fall down on it]
There you go, a 'none of the above' option if you think it's that one.
[Yoru is...truly an unpleasant person. But hey, at least the option is there now!
And, truthfully, from the way her face twitches when she said that, it's pretty clear she was annoyed with Harley -- and anything that gets her annoyed is probably a deserving hit at Yoru's pride, and therefore a correct thing to do]
...I have no idea how Sora and you are capable of getting along. She likes you far more than she should.
[Probably unsurprisingly, standing on that pillar is very uncomfortable. Doesn't get through Harley's shoes, but it's like standing on pins and needles, and when the pillar gets moving downwards, deeper into this realm of floating platforms and chandeliers floating in the air, Yoru nods]
But yeah. Surprise, none of those were right. Sora is the Monark of Woe. The Daemon who makes pacts with the humans whose wishes are rooted in despair and grief.
[Yoru points down, to a snaking path. There's the man Harley had seen -- Yugo Jingu, walking to a precipice, where...there's...
Harley probably remembers having seen some interesting patterns and surfaces when checking Harley on the third trial. How they existed and why Sora was defensive over getting them too touched probably is explained now]
That's her. Tristia. That's who you have been sharing a dorm with for a month. We Daemons don't look terribly good, do we?
[The pillar stops nearby. Yugo talks, saying the same stuff Harley had said earlier. This is the moment Tristia and Yugo made their pact, and Tristia became a cheap imitation of the deceased Sora Jingu]
At first...he was looking for help to resurrect the real Sora, one way or another. But it all failed. So he decided...to give himself to woe. He asked for a parody of a life. Tristia was to be Sora Jingu from there on, and he got his memories erased.
Tristia was his jailer...and a total fool, because she began getting attached throughout the years. Instead of limiting herself to fulfilling that idiotic man's wish, she actually fell in love with him! She actually took seriously the whole thing about protecting the world! Fighting Monarks and preventing mayhem became her life...because that's what the real Sora Jingu used to do.
[Tristia was at best a shadow of what the real Sora Jingu was, but she invested herself completely into the role. Yugo was the only Pactbearer she had actually spent time with. Her inexperience with humanity led to a fixation on him...and she grew too attached. As long as she was Sora Jingu, it'd all be fine. To love Yugo, to be loved by Yugo...those became the cornerstones of Tristia's entire heart and soul.
As soon as Harley steps off the pillar, everything goes dark. She's alone, Yoru nowhere to be seen. Two orbs of light illuminate the nothingness, within Harley's reach.
One to the left, being blue. One to the right, being red.
Of course, whichever one she goes for takes a different angle and path in the dream]
[sora really liked her after harley made her share a room with her and two hyenas... incredible. but also please know she's, like, doing a low whistle at the love story. yoru really out here saying daemons are ugly when harley is a lowkey monster fucker.]
I don't know, girl, she's got, like... a whole eldritch babe vibe going on. Yugo must have some serious rizz if he got her to fall in love with him, though. It's actually kind of admirable.
[Hah! Yeah, I suppose he must have some rizz, if he managed to not only get into a hella loving relationship with a woman he was going to steal from and kill and who was in charge of keeping the world safe from supernatural threats, but also later managed to accidentally woo one of said supernatural threats. Not many manage to do that!
The blue light envelops Harley, blinding her, and when her vision clears, she's back in Sora's office. She's sitting right behind the desk, where Sora feasibly would sit so often. Harley would find herself sluggish -- not like something is controlling her, but like she's tired. Yoru's voice echoes around her in the empty office]
Nice gig she got going, if you ask me. A Monark, playing to be human! And she took it sooooo seriously for so many years.
She got herself into actually fighting Monarks, their Pactbearers and the distortions they brought! As if she wasn't one herself! Took it so seriously, playing to be this world defender, no matter how sinister it got or what she had to do to keep the world safe.
[Blood has been shed in Shin Mikado Academy, and it all tracks back to Sora Jingu. The tiredness Harley feel increases, adding some dizziness. The surroundings thrum for a brief moment]
A husband... [An effigy of him appears on the other side of the office, now with how he looked like in the present] ...and later an adopted kid? [A second effigy appears, this one of a middle schooler] She got it so good. So many years of handling both the joys of a life and the ugliness of keeping the human realm intact. Even though she was going to be just her Pactbearer's chains, she actually began to think herself as this woman she was impersonating, she wanted to be her, so badly!
No way that's allowed. That's...where I come in.
[From behind Harley's eyes, within her head, a sharp pain erupts]
That thing, fighting distorsions...even when she using her powers to keep everything "safe" only made more of them. Even though she keeping that old man's wishes created the same kind of trouble she's supposed to solve. That tore apart at her mind so badly! And to try to deal with that, she accidentally created me within her. A little seed of a new existence within her soul.
I wanted her power. Once I'd take enough, I'd be able to be my own self, separate from her. I wouldn't just sit around and be some sort of way for her to cope with her worries and the strain of her existence while she played to be some mockery of a human being.
[The headache intensifies, the office beating almost like it's about to collapse]
Sora, Tristia, whatever you want to call her, I needed her gone immediately. I used what little power I got to reach out to many humans in the academy. I got them to become Pactbearers. All at once, they caused havoc after I taught them how in their dreams. All to weaken her so I could take more of her power. All to make sure she wouldn't have time to breathe, and when the strain was at its apex...
[The headache vanishes immediately, Yoru at the other side of the office]
...I separated from her...and right in front of her...
I got rid of the one chain that kept her mind and heart intact.
[Spikes pop up from within Yugo's figure. Yoru smiles. Of course she referred her own presence here in this weird dream as Sora's trauma. The real Yoru had gone out of her way specifically to break her.
Yoru pushes the effigy of Yugo down, letting it fall to the floor. From where Harley was sitting, a transparent Sora wobbly walked to the effigies. She moved wobbly, her stare vacant]
...worked out a little too well. She didn't break. She...went haywire. Sora Jingu exists only to love Yugo Jingu and to be loved by him. If he doesn't exist, she's not Sora Jingu. [Sora reaches for Yugo, making him disappear into light] Absorbed him, to keep his heart and soul safe. And then...
...she set forth to take within her everything Yugo loves. [Sora reaches for her son's figure, making it disappear as well] And then what's important for their son as well.
[Slowly, Harley would feel herself being pulled out of the dream, back in the room. The office began disintegrating, flashes of red from the Otherworld peeking through the walls before being replaced with the Eudora's room, and Yoru's voice giving her some parting words:]
And another person, and another person, and another. More than a hundred students and faculty, in fact, all stored within her, as one entity. The happy, safe world for them, melding them together, and she too delusional to even think of how horrible that is.
So what do you think will happen now, Harley? Hmmmmm? How do you think she feels being here, powerless, with everything that matters "living" in her own soul? I don't know what she'll do, but if you ask me...
...I think you should look forward to having this dorm for yourself. It's inevitable, one way or another.
[Especially if this week keeps battering her with the memories of what's at stake. This Daemon's sanity is already in a dubious state, fragile enough the inner madness she's barely holding back has peeked through in many interactions with many people throughout the weeks whenever certain topics are touched. How much longer can it last before she does something horrible in the Eudora just so she protects herself, so she protects Yugo, so she protects everyone she absorbed, so she protects the Ideal, the pact that fuels her identity as Sora Jingu?
When the surroundings settle together, the dream officially over, Harley finds herself in the dorm, standing there beside the bed where Sora is still asleep. In Harley's hands, the moon lamp that belongs to Sora]
[Hey, Quynn! Sorry for merging together a few posts in the last couple tags -- I didn't want to keep chaining you down with something from weeks ago, since I figure you'd likely want to keep threads in the present, yup. I want to remark that you didn't do anything wrong, yup, I just wanted to make things easier for you in what's left of the game since there's only a couple weeks left. Sorry if things turned out lengthy for this dream from Week 3! Thanks for being a good sport, yup!]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[She doesn't even wait anymore for a handshake, taking her hand away and stepping backwards, smiling at Harley all the time]
It's funny I'm here. Guess that means I really left a mark on poor Sora. I'm her trauma, I guess? Even a thing like her can have her psyche scarred irreparably.
[She extends an index finger and waves it around, showing the realm around Harley and her]
Now listen, this is the Otherworld, where Daemons live. I created this little imitation of it to...guide you, I guess, to a couple ugly truths about Sora. So try not to stray too far! We don't want you to somehow die in here.
[Can Harley truly die? Probably not. It's a dream, after all. She steps onto the emptiness, bricks of clay coming to form a winding pathway while she walks, and she beckons Harley to follow while they chat]
Did you understand that tiny show I modelled at the office? Did you catch what it tried to tell you?
no subject
Uh... That's she's dead and heterosexual?
no subject
If Sora and I ever talk face to face I have to say that to her.
[Just stealing Harley's comment, apparently. Yoru stands in front of three pillars]
But yeah, Sora Jingu is dead. The real Sora. The impostor you know is what's known as a Monark -- an embodiment of a human sin, usually making pacts with humans who want power. Now, Harley, look.
[Yoru steps off the edge, floating in the air with ease, and walks around the pillars]
Make a guess! What sin does that thing embody?
The left pillar is for Pride.
The center pillar is for Greed.
The right pillar is for Lust.
Go on! Choose wisely!
[She looks at Harley expectantly, lowering the pillars so they're at Harley's level, so she can step onto her answer]
no subject
And what if, uh, I don't think any of these three are it?
no subject
[With a wave, a new pillar appears. It's noticeably...spikier. Instead of a flat surface the rock that forms it is made of little spires, meant to make standing on that platform really uncomfortable, even painful if you were to trip and fall down on it]
There you go, a 'none of the above' option if you think it's that one.
[Yoru is...truly an unpleasant person. But hey, at least the option is there now!
And, truthfully, from the way her face twitches when she said that, it's pretty clear she was annoyed with Harley -- and anything that gets her annoyed is probably a deserving hit at Yoru's pride, and therefore a correct thing to do]
no subject
Hey, you showed me a guy with his emotional dick out. I'm going by what I saw and heard.
[anyway, she is not afraid of no spires and will trot on over to none of the above.]
no subject
[Probably unsurprisingly, standing on that pillar is very uncomfortable. Doesn't get through Harley's shoes, but it's like standing on pins and needles, and when the pillar gets moving downwards, deeper into this realm of floating platforms and chandeliers floating in the air, Yoru nods]
But yeah. Surprise, none of those were right. Sora is the Monark of Woe. The Daemon who makes pacts with the humans whose wishes are rooted in despair and grief.
[Yoru points down, to a snaking path. There's the man Harley had seen -- Yugo Jingu, walking to a precipice, where...there's...
...that.
Harley probably remembers having seen some interesting patterns and surfaces when checking Harley on the third trial. How they existed and why Sora was defensive over getting them too touched probably is explained now]
That's her. Tristia. That's who you have been sharing a dorm with for a month. We Daemons don't look terribly good, do we?
[The pillar stops nearby. Yugo talks, saying the same stuff Harley had said earlier. This is the moment Tristia and Yugo made their pact, and Tristia became a cheap imitation of the deceased Sora Jingu]
At first...he was looking for help to resurrect the real Sora, one way or another. But it all failed. So he decided...to give himself to woe. He asked for a parody of a life. Tristia was to be Sora Jingu from there on, and he got his memories erased.
Tristia was his jailer...and a total fool, because she began getting attached throughout the years. Instead of limiting herself to fulfilling that idiotic man's wish, she actually fell in love with him! She actually took seriously the whole thing about protecting the world! Fighting Monarks and preventing mayhem became her life...because that's what the real Sora Jingu used to do.
[Tristia was at best a shadow of what the real Sora Jingu was, but she invested herself completely into the role. Yugo was the only Pactbearer she had actually spent time with. Her inexperience with humanity led to a fixation on him...and she grew too attached. As long as she was Sora Jingu, it'd all be fine. To love Yugo, to be loved by Yugo...those became the cornerstones of Tristia's entire heart and soul.
As soon as Harley steps off the pillar, everything goes dark. She's alone, Yoru nowhere to be seen. Two orbs of light illuminate the nothingness, within Harley's reach.
One to the left, being blue.
One to the right, being red.
Of course, whichever one she goes for takes a different angle and path in the dream]
no subject
[sora really liked her after harley made her share a room with her and two hyenas... incredible. but also please know she's, like, doing a low whistle at the love story. yoru really out here saying daemons are ugly when harley is a lowkey monster fucker.]
I don't know, girl, she's got, like... a whole eldritch babe vibe going on. Yugo must have some serious rizz if he got her to fall in love with him, though. It's actually kind of admirable.
[but, hmmmmm... she'll pick blue?]
no subject
The blue light envelops Harley, blinding her, and when her vision clears, she's back in Sora's office. She's sitting right behind the desk, where Sora feasibly would sit so often. Harley would find herself sluggish -- not like something is controlling her, but like she's tired. Yoru's voice echoes around her in the empty office]
Nice gig she got going, if you ask me. A Monark, playing to be human! And she took it sooooo seriously for so many years.
She got herself into actually fighting Monarks, their Pactbearers and the distortions they brought! As if she wasn't one herself! Took it so seriously, playing to be this world defender, no matter how sinister it got or what she had to do to keep the world safe.
[Blood has been shed in Shin Mikado Academy, and it all tracks back to Sora Jingu. The tiredness Harley feel increases, adding some dizziness. The surroundings thrum for a brief moment]
A husband... [An effigy of him appears on the other side of the office, now with how he looked like in the present] ...and later an adopted kid? [A second effigy appears, this one of a middle schooler] She got it so good. So many years of handling both the joys of a life and the ugliness of keeping the human realm intact. Even though she was going to be just her Pactbearer's chains, she actually began to think herself as this woman she was impersonating, she wanted to be her, so badly!
No way that's allowed. That's...where I come in.
[From behind Harley's eyes, within her head, a sharp pain erupts]
That thing, fighting distorsions...even when she using her powers to keep everything "safe" only made more of them. Even though she keeping that old man's wishes created the same kind of trouble she's supposed to solve. That tore apart at her mind so badly! And to try to deal with that, she accidentally created me within her. A little seed of a new existence within her soul.
I wanted her power. Once I'd take enough, I'd be able to be my own self, separate from her. I wouldn't just sit around and be some sort of way for her to cope with her worries and the strain of her existence while she played to be some mockery of a human being.
[The headache intensifies, the office beating almost like it's about to collapse]
Sora, Tristia, whatever you want to call her, I needed her gone immediately. I used what little power I got to reach out to many humans in the academy. I got them to become Pactbearers. All at once, they caused havoc after I taught them how in their dreams. All to weaken her so I could take more of her power. All to make sure she wouldn't have time to breathe, and when the strain was at its apex...
[The headache vanishes immediately, Yoru at the other side of the office]
...I separated from her...and right in front of her...
I got rid of the one chain that kept her mind and heart intact.
[Spikes pop up from within Yugo's figure. Yoru smiles. Of course she referred her own presence here in this weird dream as Sora's trauma. The real Yoru had gone out of her way specifically to break her.
Yoru pushes the effigy of Yugo down, letting it fall to the floor. From where Harley was sitting, a transparent Sora wobbly walked to the effigies. She moved wobbly, her stare vacant]
...worked out a little too well. She didn't break. She...went haywire. Sora Jingu exists only to love Yugo Jingu and to be loved by him. If he doesn't exist, she's not Sora Jingu. [Sora reaches for Yugo, making him disappear into light] Absorbed him, to keep his heart and soul safe. And then...
...she set forth to take within her everything Yugo loves. [Sora reaches for her son's figure, making it disappear as well] And then what's important for their son as well.
[Slowly, Harley would feel herself being pulled out of the dream, back in the room. The office began disintegrating, flashes of red from the Otherworld peeking through the walls before being replaced with the Eudora's room, and Yoru's voice giving her some parting words:]
And another person, and another person, and another. More than a hundred students and faculty, in fact, all stored within her, as one entity. The happy, safe world for them, melding them together, and she too delusional to even think of how horrible that is.
So what do you think will happen now, Harley? Hmmmmm? How do you think she feels being here, powerless, with everything that matters "living" in her own soul? I don't know what she'll do, but if you ask me...
...I think you should look forward to having this dorm for yourself. It's inevitable, one way or another.
[Especially if this week keeps battering her with the memories of what's at stake. This Daemon's sanity is already in a dubious state, fragile enough the inner madness she's barely holding back has peeked through in many interactions with many people throughout the weeks whenever certain topics are touched. How much longer can it last before she does something horrible in the Eudora just so she protects herself, so she protects Yugo, so she protects everyone she absorbed, so she protects the Ideal, the pact that fuels her identity as Sora Jingu?
When the surroundings settle together, the dream officially over, Harley finds herself in the dorm, standing there beside the bed where Sora is still asleep. In Harley's hands, the moon lamp that belongs to Sora]
[Hey, Quynn! Sorry for merging together a few posts in the last couple tags -- I didn't want to keep chaining you down with something from weeks ago, since I figure you'd likely want to keep threads in the present, yup. I want to remark that you didn't do anything wrong, yup, I just wanted to make things easier for you in what's left of the game since there's only a couple weeks left. Sorry if things turned out lengthy for this dream from Week 3! Thanks for being a good sport, yup!]