[Day: Saturday, November 22nd. Time: 1:20 a.m.] [Keiko wakes up to some groaning, in bed. That could be in a fortune cookie.] [Start] (Snerk.) * Keiko was in her bed, sleeping. She blinks her eyes slowly, putting her hand to her head and groaning herself, and as she comes into awareness, she says, softly, "Zarina...?" [Zarina responds with a whimper. She's all hot and sweaty. Her wyes are closed, but her face has a pained expression.] * Keiko slowly stands up, wearing that shirt Zarina gifted her with, and then gets to see Zarina hot, sweaty, nightmarish. She puts her fingers to her own collar and whispers, (I assume she's 'feeling' awful and scared and all that stuff?) (Because empathy is annoyingly unavoidable?) [Yep!] * Keiko takes a step back and a big breath, closing her eyes. She stands there a long moment, before she says, weakkly, "Zarina?" Maybe she's trying to wake her up normall! With her voice. Quietly. From a few feet away. [It don't work.] * Keiko reopens her eyes and looks at her a moment, before swallowing and gritting her teeth as she goes back to her own bed, almost diving into it, to lay down. She closes her eyes, once she's there, shaking for a moment... before the shaking stops. Of course, it stops because she's headed astral. And astrally up. Into Zarina's dream. [That doesn't take much effort! Keiko finds herself outside a house in the suburbs of some city. It's night! But nothing seems unusual.] * Keiko floats, as a ghostly form, in the dream. Because Zarina hasn't really let her in yet. She tries to find Zarina without talking, floating around as fast as she can in this half-form. * Keiko heads for the house first! It's the first good guess. [As Keiko heads towards the house, a bunch of vehicles screech to a halt behind her, and out jumps several people. They're all dressed in black, wearing helmets and carrying automatic weapons. They run towards the house, the one in the lead shouting: "Move! Move!" In German! ] * Keiko glances behind her even as she continues drifting forward. She whispers, "Zarina, where are you," to herself. [The peoples quickly overtake Keiko, bashing down the door to the house. Inside seems normal enough. They split up, some heading towards the kitchen, some heading upstairs, but most heading towards the basement.] * Keiko floats through the floor, then! Ha ha, she cheats! * Keiko heads to the basement. [Keiko actually gets there before them, then! And this could take some description.] [It ain't gonna be pretty. This MC is R rated.] (Oh boy.) [The stairs lead down into a single-room dingy basement. There's a couch and TV in one corner, some posters that don't make any sense, probably because this is a dream, a washer, a dryer...] [And like a dozen candles surrounding a pentagram in the center. That's a little unusal.] [Keiko does find Zarina, though! She's backed up against the wall, looking horrified. And she's completely naked. Bonus! Near the stares is a blond man, about thirty-fiveish. Unremarkable, except for his blood red robe and the book with an upside down pentagram. ] [And in the pentagram itself is a red skinned demon, feasting on the inards of another, also highly attractive, highly naked woman. She's still alive, screaming every time the demon plucks out an organ. She seems to have more organs than normal, but hey, this is a nightmare.] ( That's it for description! For them oment. ) (Does Zarina look like herself?) ( She does, in fact. ) ( If she didn't, you wouldn't recognize her. XD ) (So true.) [A bunch of the heavily armed warriors come down the stairs noisily. Zarina looks at them. "Thank god. Please, help my mom!" If it wasn't obvious who she's referring to, she looks at the woman who's being eaten.] [Said woman looks far too young to be Zarina's mother, but... nightmare.] * Keiko 's eyes widen as she takes it all in. And she seems stunned, for a moment, her hands flying to her ghostly stomach. Sickening. She keeps them there as she floats over to Zarina and says, quietly, "Zarina, Zarina. Let me in." Once the mom thing comes out, she adds, in Japanese, trembling slightly, [The man in the robe looks over his shoulder, seemingly unsurprised at the troops. They continue down the stairs and fan out next to him. Zarina looks at them desperately. "Please!"] [And then they start to laugh.] * Keiko continues whispering, a bit more forcefully, "Zarina, please, let me--" and then the laughter stuns her. [One of them takes off his helmet. Well, her helmet. It's Lydia. "Why don't you help her yourself, Zarina?"] *** Signoff: Dicesuke (Ping timeout) [Another removes his helmet, too. Gertrude. "Because she's weak."] [The others begin to follow suit. Karin's up next. "It's sad, really. She's too old for the genetic modification process. She made a good lab rat, though."] [Then Sebastian. "She's still on the team, though. She's holding us back."] * Keiko sees each person reveal, and tries to tug Zarina's arm. But fails. Because she's not real. "Zarina. Zarina, I can stop this..." her voice begins to get pained. "Please. Please let me in..." [And then even Cyra! "They don't even understand me, but they still know I'm more useful than you."] [Zarina stops, staring at Keiko. But not that Keiko. The other one, who just removed her helmet. "You're so pathetic, modifying your appearance. That's because you can't do anything on your own."] * Keiko hears herself, looks to the not-herself, and then back to Zarina with the pleading. "I'm not her, Zarina. I'm real. I can help you. If you let me... please... please...!" [And Luana! "I'm a martial artist, too. A better one than you, no doubt." And Hotaru. "Glad I didn't get stuck with you as a roommate."] [And then the last one removes his helmet. Zarina gasps. "G-Gabriel." He stares at her for a minute, then shakes his head. "Weak.... Pathetic. Worthless. And I'm assigned to watch over this piece of trash." He turns to the man in the robes, who's appearance has somehow changed into a dark-haired man with a mustache and a pierced nostril. "You know what to do."] ( That get through? ) (Yep.) * Keiko looks back and forth between the two and tries to grab her again. "Zarina, dammit... let me in!" [The man nods, and if on queue, the demon turns from the fallen woman and darts at Zarina.] [And then without warning, Keiko's pushed back into her own body. Overhead, she hears Zarina gasp loudly.] [Zarina breathes heavily. And audibly.] * Keiko lets out the exact same gasp, and then lets out a choked sob and curls up, whispering, [After a bit, Zarina gets up and staggers to the bathroom.] * Keiko weakly watches her go, and then, grabbing her duck very tightly, slowly gets to her own feet and follows her over. If Zarina closed the door, she'll be stopped by it! [She doesn't. She bends over the sink and washes her face.] [She looks at herself in the mirror. "I'm okay... Just a bad dream."] * Keiko steps into the bathroom and stands there, in Zarina's shirt, duck clutched tight, and whispers, with pain in her voice, "Zarina..." I... it felt... [Zarina turns around. "You... what?"] * Keiko looks away and whispers, "I... I couldn't help it. You were writhing, moaning... I could feel the pain. I..." she trails off and lets out a ragged breath. ["You saw..." Zarina stops, staring at Keiko. Then she shivers. "Oh god. Oh god."] * Keiko closes her eyes and shudders. "Zarina, I'm... I don't know what to say." She steps forward, blind. "You felt... so... and you helped me when I had nightmares, I--I thought..." [Zarina shakes her head. "No, it's... It's okay, it's just... god..."] * Keiko opens her eyes and looks to Zarina, saying quietly as she steps forward again, "I know..." and then she's close enough to be feeling emotions again as she adds, "I don't know truth from lies... but your feelings are real." [Zarina rubs her face with her hands. "I thought... I hoped I was past it. But it doesn't go away."] (Emotions?) ( Remorse? Remorse is good. ) * Keiko whispers, weakly, uncertainly, as her hand reaches out to Zarina's face, "You couldn't--" and then she swallows, cutting herself off before she says too much. ["What?"] * Keiko tries to touch her cheek as she says, "I--I don't know, Zarina. I can feel your... pain.." she gets quieter and adds, "Let me help. Somehow. I don't want..." her voice trails off weakly. [Zarina blinks. "...How?"] * Keiko touches her face and grits her teeth a moment, then whispers, "I don't know. Doesn't... doesn't it seem like I should?" [Zarina shakes her head. "No. I mean... I'm just not sure... what to do." She sniffs.] * Keiko runs a finger under Zarina's eye, and then wraps her other arm, with her duck in it, around her, pressing close. "Me... me either. I... I only know how to deal with my own pain..." she shudders against her. [Zarina shudders, too. "I... I wanted to put it completely behind me... That's why... Look completely different."] * Keiko nods slightly, before saying quietly, "That... doesn't solve everything. Minds... minds can be very mean." [Zarina shakes her head. "Y...you saw it all? The whole d-dream?"] * Keiko shakes her head and replies quietly, "No... no." She's silent a moment, then manages to half-lie, "Only... only pieces. Messy pieces." [Zarina gives a strangled laugh. "It... it was messey."] * Keiko tilts her head down, resting it against Zarina's upper chest/shoulder. She whispers, "I'd... I'd think so." She doesn't ask any more, although the emotions hit her with or without her asking. [Zarina moves towards a chair, bringing Keiko with her. "I... Mom... My monther and I were prostitutes. We... she left home with nothing but the clothes on her back, so she had to... And then I had to..." she shudders.] (Out of the bathroom?) ( Yah ) * Keiko moves with her, out of the bathroom, to the chairs. After her explaination her eyes widen as she looks at Zarina. After a long moment of silence she looks away and says quietly, "You... you don't have to explain... that part, Zarina..." [Zarina shakes her head. "Th-that night... A man hired us to c-come to his house. It wouldn't be the first time, s-so we didn't think anything was wro... unusual."] (Are we having to sit now?) (We're near the chairs, are we doing the sit thing? ^^;) [Zarina sits down. She practically falls down into it, actually.] * Keiko seperates herself from her as Zarina sits, and sits down unsteadily herself, duck on the table. Her other, free hand hesitantly reaches across the table, that Zarina could take it. She still looks pretty shook up for someone who didn't have a nightmare. [Zarina looks more shook up! So there. "He didn't want us for... well, you saw what he wanted."] (I don't doubt it!) * Keiko is silent a long moment, then she replies quietly, "Yes. A... sacrifice." She looks down to the table, hand still out. [Zarina nods. She does take Keiko's hand! It might be hot, except she doesn't seem to have any particular romantic feeling. More like she's scared.] [She shakes her her. "In reality, Blitzkrieg raided the home in time to save me. But not my mom."] ( 2nd her = head ) * Keiko closes her eyes and shudders, taking in a slow breath, before whispering, "I'm... your loss. Sorry. It sounds so dumb to say it." ["Thanks. It... It was hard to talk about... But good."] * Keiko looks back to Zarina's face and manages a weak smile. "I'm... that's..." she trails off, then, "Good." She awkwardly squeezes her hand. "It's frightening, though." [Zarina nods.] * Keiko is silent, still shivering a little. Zarina's mood changing? [She's calming down.] * Keiko closes her eyes, and calms with her. She whispers, "Do you... want me to sleep in your bed? Like... you did for me? Or..." she trails off. [Zarina nods slowly. "Okay."] * Keiko nods slowly and swallows, before standing, duck in her other hand, and she holds Zarina's hand as she walks over to where she's sitting. Then she murmurs, "Should-- I'll go up first." Emotions? [Relief.] ( End? ) (Yeah, unless she's got a response. ^^;) [End!]